


Love Me Not

by narrywings



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: AU, Alley Way make out sessions, Fluff, Hate to Love, M/M, Narry - Freeform, Niall is Harry's managers son, Pop Star!Harry, Rich Kid!Niall, Smut, famous!harry
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-03-16
Updated: 2014-05-11
Packaged: 2018-01-15 21:30:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 39,778
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1319869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/narrywings/pseuds/narrywings
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"For the hundredth time that morning he spared a glance down to the images; scowling as he caught his own frozen gaze staring back up at him" If there's one thing Harry Styles can't stand right now it's that Niall Horan keeps trying to change his mind regarding his sexuality - and Harry can't help but wonder whether this snot nosed rich kid has a point or not.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One: Encounter

**Author's Note:**

> This amazing prompt and general idea came from talkaboutnarry - please go and tell her how cool she is at http://talkaboutnarry.tumblr.com/

* * *

 

He's not weird, and he's not a freak. There's absolutely nothing wrong with him. These are the thoughts that Harry Styles keeps running through his mind as he sits in his fancy all expenses paid for hotel.

Lying innocently spread across the coffee table in front of him are several glossy magazines and high profile newspapers, each with matching scandalous images splashed across their covers. It was the images that were the problem (although the headlines weren't much better). They had caused such an uproar within the media, and were now the reason why he was having to wait while a select number of his management team arrived for an "emergency" meeting.

For the hundredth time that morning he spared a glance down to the images; scowling as he caught his own frozen gaze staring back up at him.

Leaning provocatively into his chest with plump pouting lips attached to his own was the woman he had been talking to all of last night in a shady bar downtown. She had seemed friendly enough, and had been fine with talking openly to him back and forth. She hadn't even minded when he had reached across the table to take her hand gently within his pressing a thumb into her soft skin and drawing small circles into the back of her palm in a loving manner.

And this was the problem. Being heterosexual was basically forbidden. It just wasn't allowed within society and anyone found doing such things was scowled upon. Way back in history you would have killed. But people had come to realise that that was inhumane and there were a select few who were now even fighting for equal rights, which homosexual people thought was ridiculous.

Harry didn't though. His birth mother had been heterosexual. She'd had him with his father back when they were still young themselves, but they had split up due to his dad being afraid of the hate they would receive from everyone around them.

So he'd been raised by his single parent mother along side his sister fighting the sneers and nasty comments from people around them.

He'd known from a young age that he was different. He liked girls - and there was nothing wrong with that. It didn't matter to him that he thought differently than the society he lived in. But his management didn't agree. They'd never let on about his supposed "dark secret" and kept it away from the media. They kept the fact that his mother had been heterosexual hidden too, afraid of the bash lash and lost of fans that it would bring.

With a final huff he flopped back against the sofa and pushed the papers on the table away with the toe of his boot. Stupid paps always following him around.

A clang from behind startled him out of his dismal thoughts and he turned to see three men walking into the room dressed up in suits looking as smart as always. He caught Paul's eyes and gave him a meek look which his manager returned as he took his seat at the end of the adjacent sofa. Following behind Paul was Bobby and Steve, both who were from his management board. Bobby looked fairly pleased and gave him a quick smile and handshake as he took the seat at the other end to Paul lifting up a briefcase and taking out a handful of papers. Steve however wasn't as cheerful as his accomplices. He still offered a brief handshake to him and spoke his name curtly in greeting taking a seat between the two other men. However he certainly wasn't pleased.

"I'm sure you already know what this is about" he said hurriedly getting straight to the point like always. "I'm not going to sugar coat this for you Harry, this needs to stop. We've had too many near misses now and we can't keep covering for you anymore" he explained gesturing over to the magazine and papers as if to make his point clear. "Last time it was a rouge video of you dancing promiscuously with another woman, the time before that it was a shady comment on equality and heterosexual couples. It's too much and people are beginning to question whether or not you really are gay. You already know we can't have that. The collateral would be extortionate. So, we've come up with a solution to this… Problem"

Harry snorts, crossing his arms defensively while he blows a troublesome curl of hair from his face. He'd been dreading this since he'd first seen those stupid articles. Steve was bound to have found a "solution" to the so called "problem" that didn’t even exist. He just hopes that it's not another series of interviews again like after he'd made the blasé comment about equal rights for the heterosexual community. There'd been so many people who had wanted to interview him after the incident just so they could hear the gossip first hand. It had been one hassle of a headache.

"Harry are you even listening?" Steve asks glaring at him coldly when he notices Harry's far away expression.

Immediately Harry brings himself back to the men in front of him and nods his head tiredly. In all honesty he just wants to go back to bed and forget that this had ever happened. He certainly doesn't want to go through the disaster plan and try and sort a plan of action to worm his way out of this for the sake of the media waiting outside. Although his interest perks when Steve asks Bobby to "bring him in" and he shoots his head up to watch as Bobby heads towards the door. Automatically Harry's mind draws the question of "who is he?"

His eyes ignore Bobby's figure and land upon a young boy around his age with bright blonde hair sticking out from underneath a dark navy blue beanie and fair skin. He's never seen him before, but he can already pick out the similar ocean blue eyes that he and Bobby share.

The boy takes a seat directly in front of him on the sofa as instructed by Bobby and arranges his mouth into a frown as he looks at Harry. He's dressed casually in jeans a light t-shirt and jacket and even Harry has to admit he's really good looking despite the look of distaste he's got aimed at him.

"Harry this is my son Niall. Niall this is Harry" Bobby says as a way of introducing them while he sits perched on the arm of the couch gesturing between them.

Out of sheer politeness Harry goes to give Niall his hand to shake, but the blonde doesn't move and instead narrows his eyes further crossing his arms over his chest.

"Pleasure to meet you I'm sure" Niall comments sarcastically and Harry already knows he's going to hate Niall.

"Likewise" he replies dryly retracting his hand.

Steve coughs awkwardly to try and clear some of the newly formed tension as Bobby nudges Niall in reprimand. The blonde doesn't even flinch and keeps his steady gaze on Harry as though he's dissecting him with his eyes alone. It's working and Harry feels extremely uncomfortable - not that he's going to give Niall the pleasure of knowing. What's this kids problem? They've only just met and it seems like the blondes got issues with him. He's clearly not a fan.

"Well anyway" Steve says attempting to draw their attention away from each other and put out the flames of growing animosity. "We've decided that from this point on you two will be pretending to date to cover up Harry's recent disaster"

A silence covers the room as they wait for Harry to react and suddenly he realises why Niall is so pissed at him...

"…What?" he questions doing a double take and twisting his face down into a deep set frown.

Whose stupid idea was this?

Even Paul rolls his eyes at the side of Steve before shaking his head and folding his arms. Harry knows well enough by now that if Paul thinks something is a bad idea then whatever it is that’s being planned is going to end badly. All the same Steve still huffs and makes an obvious gestures with his spindly hands.

"I'm sure I don’t need to repeat myself Harry. You’re a smart kid, just don't mess this up. All you two need to do is act like a perfect couple in the spotlight. Go out a few times, enjoy the fame, give each other a few kisses and cuddles. Be believable. I'm sure it won't be hard. You can be quiet charming when you want to be Harry" he reels off making it seem as easy as breathing.

"But I don’t even know him!" Harry yells back extending his hand to Niall dramatically desperately trying to make them realise what a stupid idea this is. "Sorry Niall this isn't anything against you" he quickly adds when Niall snorts indignantly and turns away from the conversation hooking one leg over the other and trying to look aloof.

Steve gives off another agitated sigh, and presses a hand to his forehead massaging the muscles there in a tired fashion, before flicking his eyes back to Harry in exasperation.

"Look, Harry, all you need to do is make people think that you two are a match made in heaven - the perfect fairy tale couple. I don’t care, and I don’t need to know, whatever it is you do before closed doors. That’s completely up to you; and as long as it doesn't effect your career I don’t give a damn. But you're recent… Interests, have caused yet another stir in the media, and we need to fix this before people begin to assume undesirable things about you that could effect your growing fan base. And that, is not something I am about to let happen. So you either go along with this idea, or you'll be out of this industry so fast you won't know what's hit you. Understand?" Steve tells him stressing over his words to be sure the message has sunk in.

Harry sits seething within his skin letting his eyes roll over the three men before him and little Niall sitting in between them looking small and vaguely interested in the sudden tense atmosphere engulfing the room. In all honesty Harry just wants to flip the table and tell Steve to stick his multimillion pound contract and kick him out. But he can't do that. He's got nothing to fall back onto and no one waiting to pick up the pieces for him. Right now he's only got his voice to rely on and whiles he's currently rocking the charts with a number one album under his belt, he knows he's a wild card in the industry and not many labels would be so willing to take him on despite his long running success. So he grumbles under his breathe and makes a show of thinking the proposal over - regardless of the fact that he knows he doesn't have any other option. He can see Niall watching him out of the corner of his eye with a raised eyebrow and a look asking him if he's really got to think this one over. There's no way he's about to let Steve that he's got complete control over him. Finally he gives a frustrated sigh and glances back to his make shift panel sitting in front of him.

"Fine" he says flippantly waving a hand around in an airy gesture. "Do whatever you want"

Steve throws a creepy smile to him and pushes the papers from Bobby's briefcase towards him to sign, which he does with an annoyed scowl. Steve then pulls them back for Niall to sign as well before he stands adjusting his suit with a smug air.

"Well, it's good to know that we have an understanding here Harry. I'll make arrangements for Niall to be dropped off to your apartment on Monday so as you can… Bond shall we say?"

Both Harry and Niall do a double take at the man dropping their jaws and sharing looks of horror.

"What! Wait, no way. Dad! You never said anything about having to live with him!" Niall yells jerking his head to stare at his father with such a look of livid fury that Harry makes the quick decision to note that he shouldn’t piss Niall off too much.

"Well it would be a good way to get to know each other. I mean you will be spending a lot of time with Harry whilst this arrangement is in action" Bobby says thoughtfully scratching his chin while trying to placate Niall with a soft look.

It doesn't go down well with the blonde and Niall is quick to launch himself off the sofa and head towards to door leaving it swinging on it's hinges as he slams it shut behind him. Harry suddenly wonders as to why Bobby is so eager to have Niall play his "fake date" in all this. It's obvious that Niall is less than happy with the arrangement. So why the hell would he try and force Niall into it? A quick way to get his foot in the door to the media? Either way it's pretty obvious that Niall isn't going to make this easy for either of them.

"Niall!" Bobby calls after the lad, rushing off to follow him out the door while calling back apologies over his shoulders and promising to bring Niall over on Monday. Steve sighs once more and presses his hand to his temple.

"Well anyway, now that’s sorted I'll leave you to your thoughts Harry, be sure to be ready for Monday" he says snidely before gesturing for Paul to follow him out throwing a curt goodbye to him closing the door with a soft click and sending him one final over sweet smile.

Harry glowers at him through the glass before flopping back down into the sofa and staring frostily at the picture that had started this mess.

* * *

 


	2. Dating the Enemy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As before the prompt and idea came from the the amazing talkaboutnarry! Please check out her tumblr page here -----> http://talkaboutnarry.tumblr.com/

* * *

 

 

Monday comes around way to quickly for Harry's liking.

 

He's already set aside a spare room for Niall to stay in, and in his mind, that’s as far as he needs to go with providing for this snot nosed kid.

 

He's already having to house him after all, he reminds himself. To him this kid is a stranger and he doesn't know him at all. As far he's aware he could be an ex convict or secret serial killer - and he wouldn’t have a clue. Although he highly doubts that Bobby would let his serial killer son stay with him; it would after all be too high a risk to his personal safety.

 

All the same, he isn't pleased with the arrangement and he's already prepared a dramatically over the top tantrum for his less than helpful management team. He's pretty sure they're going to hate him for it, but if he doesn't make them fully aware that he's not happy then how are they meant to know how he's feeling?

 

His musings are interrupted when he hears the doorbell sound, and he briefly considers ignoring it in favour of continuing to plan out a series of ways that he could be as awkward as possible leading up to his next set of public appearances. He lets the thought die in his mind when he remembers that Steve has a copy of the key to his flat for security reasons and hurls himself up off his more than comfy sofa to answer the door.

 

He finds he new boyfriend standing on the other side looking less than impressed flanked by his father and Steve behind him. Niall's holding a large suitcase in his hands and wearing another cute beanie atop of his head with his blonde hair arranged stylishly around his face.

 

"Hi…" he says out of sheer politeness, because his mother had raised him with good manners, and he wasn’t about to let the situation effect him so badly that he forgot the standards that he had been raised on.

 

Niall however doesn't share his feelings and simply gives him a low grunt in greeting before walking straight past him and into the apartment without a word.

 

"Make yourself at home why don’t you…" he mumbles once Niall's inside, and safely out of earshot, before he turns back to hold the door open for Bobby and Steve to pass through.

 

The two other men both give him cheery greetings and Bobby apologises on Niall's behalf as he passes squeezing his shoulder. They both make themselves comfortable on the sofa sitting in the middle of his open plan living room looking around appreciatively. Niall on the other hand stands awkwardly to the side crossing his arms and looking anywhere but at him.

 

He sighs dramatically making a show of swinging the door shut and strolling over to his two bosses slowly.

 

"So, do you want a drink? Or are you not staying long?" he asks hoping that they aren't going to stay all that long - because in all honesty he just wants them gone as quickly as possible so he can make a start on ignoring Niall's existence.

 

To his relief they both decline with matching polite smiles and a quick "no thank you" each. Steve however takes a slip of paper from the top pocket of his suit jacket and smoothes the edges out crisply.

 

"No, we won't be staying long. We simply came over to make sure Niall got here okay and go through the itinerary with you" he says with one of his famous smarmy looks.

 

Harry bristles as he settles into the armchair in front of them crossing his arms defensively raising an eye brow in question.

 

"Itinerary?" he asks sounding as though he was completely unaware that such a thing had even been created.

 

He had already know that something like this was coming - he hadn’t however expected it to come about so quickly. The idea that he'll have to be seen out with Niall and act so, _intimate_ , with him is enough to make him feel slightly nauseous… He doesn't like guys like that - and as wrong as society may think that is - it's just the way he was born, and it isn't likely to change anytime soon.

 

"So, we've arranged for you both to have dinner tomorrow night at a restaurant that has recently opened downtown. I'll make sure to send you the details later Harry. But I want lots of shy touches and plenty of smiles shared. I want people to think there's something going on between you. I want an air of you both maybe wanting more" Steve says making the arrangement sound like something straight from a teenage romance novel.

 

He looks to Harry for some sign of acknowledgement to his plan and Harry simply nods his head giving him a mock salute. Niall copies the movement looking just as displeased as before. He keeps shooting his father these menacing looks of revenge and Harry hazards a guess that they have yet to make up properly.

 

"We're planning on making an statement within the next week confirming you as an item. But for now I want you to act as though this is the first date. The official story is going to be that you met at one of Harry's studio meetings and had an instant connection" Steve continues to explain looking as though he's really getting into this.

 

Harry sighs dramatically knowing that was going to be a complete waste of time. Niall's clearly not into the idea, and he's never been with another male before and has no idea whether he's comfortable with the idea. But from the stern look on Steve's face he's knows it would just be better to keep his mouth shut.

 

"So are we all clear on this?" the older man then asks placing his hands together with a smile.

 

Harry only nods his head again, turning to look at Niall. It sounds pretty simple to him. Try not to kill each other while they're in the apartment and act like the love of each other's life while in public.

 

"How long exactly is this going to go on for?" he hears Niall ask behind him.

 

He blinks realising that he hadn't thought about that until now, and whips his head back to face Steve. The man frowns and shoots a thoughtful look to Bobby for confirmation.

 

"Well lets just take this one step at a time. There's no need to get ahead of ourselves and start putting time limits on things now" Bobby says and for once he looks as serious at Steve.

 

Harry's still interested in why Bobby is so eager for him to date his son. Of course he's not about to ask Bobby outright, that could end messy, and from the look on Niall's face now is clearly not the right time to open that door. The last thing he needs right now is o get into an argument with his new boyfriend, (plus he rather likes his apartment in one piece instead of several).

 

He hears Niall give a heavy sigh behind him, apparently he's not all too pleased about the lack of time limit on their relationship - something that Harry can't help but agree with. Now he's in this mess of a relationship, he's less willing to go down to the heterosexual clubs in the area. If he was still single it would be less of an issue if he was caught. Naturally it would still hit the headlines and cause an uproar, but it wouldn’t be as bad as it would be if he was caught while _in_ a relationship. Niall's just become another liability to his ever growing pile.

 

His musings are cut short when Steve lifts himself up swiping down his suit to rid himself of unseen dust and smoothing out the collection of creases that have formed. He offers a particularly charming smile to his blonde boyfriend in the corner before toning down his personality as he turns back to Harry and offers a firm handshake. Harry wants to be offended but instead, on reflex, his eyes twirl upwards rolling to the side in an exaggerated eye roll.

 

"I'm sure I'll see you soon Harry. In the meantime make sure to look after Niall. I'll email you over the address for the restaurant in due course along with the menu and time" Steve tells him with a professional air before sliding past him in the most slimy way Harry has ever witnessed.

 

Bobby ambles over next after saying goodbye to his son pressing him into a tight hug and smiling down at him. Niall doesn't return the sentiment and only shrugs him off once he's done, scowling down at the ground like a pro.

 

"Make sure to look after him wont you?" Bobby says smiling at him shaking his hand tightly.

 

"Of course" Harry replies going for the best reassuring look he can muster to back up his confirmation.

 

"He's a bit of a handful at times, but he means well I swear" Bobby laughs clamping a hand down on his shoulder that’s a little too tight.

 

It makes Harry wonder whether it's meant to be a little threatening. Of course Harry knows how to take a hint and shifts his face into a tentative smile as Bobby grins back at him harmlessly.

 

"He'll be perfectly safe. I'll take god care of him" he adds quickly seemingly placating the overprotective father who moves away with another grin calling goodbyes over his shoulder and closing the door behind him softly.

 

That just leaves Niall…

 

Who is no longer leaning against the wall behind him.

 

-X-

 

Harry was right when he's assumed he wouldn’t like Niall.

 

The blonde had only been there for a total of four hours and they had already fought with each other three times and were currently not on speaking terms.

 

Niall had taken it upon himself to make himself comfortable once the earlier meeting had concluded. He'd walked straight into Harry's room and made himself at home there emptying his suitcase and flinging his stuff around the room like he lived there. Of course Harry was _not_ having that and in no uncertain terms had told Niall to kindly remove himself _and_ his shit the hell out of his room.

 

Naturally Niall hadn't taken too well to such words and had in return had told him that he could "get bent" and carried on making a mess.

 

So Harry had taken it upon himself to gather Niall's things together and had launched them over the side of his balcony that overlooked the sitting room and let them form a lovely pile on the floor below. It had all be amusing until Niall had proceeded to do the same to his stuff.

 

In the end Harry had compromised and helped Niall to gather all of his possessions up again before leading him to the spare guest room and assisting him in getting set up.

 

However the truce hadn't lasted long and the next disagreement soon followed in the form of edible substance.

 

Now Niall wasn’t a fussy eater per say; he just knew what he wanted. The only problem was that Harry didn’t share the opinion on what he wanted. This of course lead to a clash in options…

 

Niall wanted Mexican, Harry wanted Chinese.

 

The end result was four smashed plates, two broken glasses, an over turned potted plant - complete with a soiled carpet that was littered with compost - and a lack of an apology from Niall. Apparently Niall hadn't knocked it over when he had thrown that glass at him, aiming directly for his head. The only reason he had missed was because Harry had ducked under the cupboard to reach for another kitchen utensil to play darts with.

 

They ended up settling for curry instead from a near by Indian that Harry had found online.

 

The third and final argument of the evening (thank God, because Harry couldn’t take much more stress from the blonde) had been over which TV channel they were watching. Harry had wanted to check out that new heterosexual channel that had only just been released. But Niall instantly objected and wanted to check the football league to see if his team were at the top of the board or not.

 

Well there was no way in hell Harry was watching that crap - even if Niall was his guest. There was no way he was letting this arrangement interfere anymore with his life than it already was. Niall could go and swing for it, for all he cared right now.

 

Sadly Niall didn't concur with his thinking and had made a grab for the remote in his hands and toppled over landing ungraciously in his lap spilling hot curry down the front of his clothes.

 

A fresh change of shirt, many insults, several bruises and a half hour later they were sat down in stony silence watching the discovery channel while David Attenborough prattled on about mountain lions.

 

It was safe to say they hadn't spoken since, and Harry wasn't planning to strike up a conversation either.

 

-X-

 

Time moved _way_ too quick in Harry's opinion.

 

One moment he was lying in bed thinking about the many ways in which he could hijack his own car and drive far, far away; and then the next he's walking down the side of a high end street hand in hand with his new favourite person.

 

Due to last nights incidents they were still on bad terms. Niall had reluctantly agreed to keep up his end of the bargain and co-operate and Harry had agreed to follow his lead since he had never been with another boy before. He'd been hoping that Steve would forget to send the directions to the restaurant so they wouldn’t have to go. But as ever he'd forgotten that he wasn’t blessed with the best of fortune and Steve's email had arrived at 4pm exactly. This left them with precisely two and a half hours before they had to be there.

 

Of course Niall had decided to be his ever charming self and stay in the shower for well over an hour and had used up all the hot water - despite Harry's warnings combined with his shouts of "get the hell out of the shower" through the door. This had made them late by about ten minuets as Harry had rushed to get ready and tame his head of curly hair.

 

The restaurant was one he had never had the pleasure of visiting before, and out of sheer curiosity he had looked it up while Niall had been soaking up all of his hot water. It was of course the over the top, fancy, high class type of place - the sort that A list celebrities would go to dine. The kind where they pulled out the chair for you and sprinkled gold chippings into the deserts. It was the kind of place Harry hated with a fiery passion that could rival the darkest pits of hell.

 

These thoughts accompanied him as he walked down the street with Niall, pretending to be deeply engrossed in the one side conversation Niall was holding with him. He'd forced a fond smile on his face as he listened to the blonde rattle on hoping to whoever was listening above that it would pass.

 

A bright flashing ahead of them drew his attention away from Niall and he glanced over feeling a sinking feeling in his stomach arise as he realised what it was. In front of the restaurant that Niall and him are about to go into is a cluster of paparazzi snapping pictures of everyone who enters (famous or not).

 

Harry huffs to himself and turns his eyes away from the constant flashing coming from the cameras and prays that they won't notice them just yet.

 

Niall however doesn't seem all that bothered by them and continues to walk along side him as though they aren't even there. It's fairly impressive really and Harry finds that he has no choice but to be in awe of him - not that he's going to let Niall have the pleasure of knowing that.

 

But naturally as they step closer it becomes clear that Niall was just putting up a front like Harry. About ten metres away from the hoard of flashing Niall falters slightly and grips his hand tighter briefly as one of the paps looks up and spots them.

 

"It's Harry Styles!" he yells jumping up and rushing towards them.

 

The others around him then leap up; following like demons from hell after the leader. It was like a wall of flashing light was swarming towards them as they continued to snap pictures of them shielding their eyes with their hands and trying to keep moving forward.

 

Next to him he feels Niall's body shift closer to him and he curls an arm around the blonde shielding him with his body slightly. Even through his large winter coat he can feel the tremors shake Niall's smaller body while his hand comes up to cling onto the thick fabric of his coat.

 

"Harry!"

 

"Look this way Styles!"

 

"Whose your new arm candy?!"

 

"Are you dating!?"

 

"Is it true you're leaving the industry?!"

 

A barrage of stupidity surrounds him as he fights his way forward taking Niall with him. He tries to peer through the lights and wonders whether they're going to write a stupid article broadcasting the imagine of him frowning, giving it come crappy title about him looking angry and not being in a good mood. Maybe they'll even make up some lie about him and his "date" not having a good time - after all it probably won't be far from the truth.

 

It takes a while (and no doubt has definitely made them late), but they eventually make it into the restaurant after making their way past the security on the door. Harry's still worked up, courtesy of the paparazzi outside, and Niall looks no better all red faced and heavy breathing. A small (very small) part of him wants to apologise; but the other reminds him of the lack of hot water from earlier.

 

"So" Niall breathes trying to catch his breath. "You want to go and find out table?" he asks nodding towards the lady waiting at the desk with a soft smile and apologetic look.

 

Harry notices her straight away and sends her a charming smile from where they're standing. She's pretty, very pretty, with her blonde her piled onto of her head in a neat bun letting a few wispy stands fall around her face framing it perfectly. She's not to thin, but well shaped and curvy, and her uniform is well fitted to her figure. Cute curved lips are pulled into the perfect smile and decorated with a thin layer of pink gloss - cherry flavoured perhaps?

 

Niall elbows him from the side shooting him a raised eyebrow when he turns to glare at him. It's clear that he's not going to get any action tonight with Niall here on duty. Then again he guesses he shouldn’t anyway since his latest escapade is still fairly fresh in his managements mind.

 

So instead he shoves his hand into Niall's and strolls over to the girl standing at the main desk pushing a dazzling smile to his lips and nodding his head to her.

 

"Table booked for two?" she asks them upon arrival picking up two menus for them smiling coyly at their intertwined hands.

 

"Ah, yeah that’s right" Harry confirms to her. "Could you make it a private booth please?" he adds as they're walking dropping his voice down a little.

 

She girl beams back and nods directing them towards the back of the restaurant and into a more private section where there are high topped booths for extra privacy.

 

"Of course not a problem" she tells them and places them in a booth towards the end of the row, sliding the menus onto the table for them and letting them know that someone will be back soon to take their drinks order. With that done she turns on heel and walk away.

 

Harry grins at her retreating form waving her off cheerily before turning back to look at a less than impressed Niall.

 

"What?" he questions letting his face fall into an innocent look.

 

"You know what" Niall huffs picking up his menu irritably before scanning through it. "You were clearly flirting with her. I don't know how you can be so stupid. It's no wonder that you're in this mess acting like that with every girl you see" he states with an annoyed air and Harry can't help but wonder if he's directing the words to him or just making observations for himself.

 

All the same Harry takes it personally and pulls his face into a frown looking over the top of his menu at Niall.

 

"I was _not_ flirting. I was simply being nice" he argues slamming down the menu to make a point that he's not happy with Niall's accusations.

 

Niall snorts at him and rolls his eyes in an obvious manner, going back to browsing the menu casually.

 

"Yes, you were being nice. But it just so happens that you were appreciating the view at the same time did it?"

 

Harry full on glares at him now looking him dead in the eye and goes to open his mouth in retaliation.

 

"Excuse me. Are you ready to order your drinks?"

 

He quickly bolts up realising that he had subconsciously leaned in to Niall as they had been having their "heated discussion" over the table. He smoothes out the menu turning it to the drinks section quickly and glancing it over briefly. His eyes land on the cocktails and he quickly points to the second one down without checking what it is.

 

"Could I get one of these please?" he asks smiling when their waiter nods and scribbles down the order for him before turning to take Niall's as well.

 

Once they're done and the drinks have arrived he jerks his head back to Niall and glares again watching as the blonde takes a quick sip of some orange fruity looking cocktail innocently. He's got his phone on the table scanning through it idly reading his messages.

 

"Who are you texting?" he asks genuinely interested.

 

Niall hadn't really talked much about himself after all. He tended to keep himself to himself and didn’t really let much slip about his personal life.

 

"My boyfriend… Well ex-boyfriend now I guess"

 

"Ex?" he asks raising an eyebrow in question.

 

Niall nods giving a noise of confirmation. His fingers continue to tap various buttons on the screen of his phone as a small smile plays on his lips.

 

"My dad doesn't like him…" Niall explains, his eyes never leaving the small screen in front of him.

 

"So your dad split you two up and banned contact then?" Harry summarises giving a small shrug as he does.

 

A sigh leaves Niall's mouth at the statement and he places his phone down on the table face up - it's the all confirmation that what he said was true.

 

"Sean, my ex, is a footballer. Do you follow the game?"

 

Harry shakes his head quickly. It's not like he hates the game per say. It's just that he's never been enthusiastic enough to actively follow a team or sit through a match. He's thankful that Niall doesn't comment on it though, instead he carries on explaining. It then strikes Harry that this is the first actual conversation that they've had that hasn't ended in a fight.

 

"Well he's pretty good as far as players go. He's a striker for MX7 ( **A/N: This is just a team I made up. In the story that are a very successful team that only take on the best players** ) We met at through one of my friends, Louis, who's also on the team and just clicked…"

 

"And your dad doesn't like him why?"

 

"He thinks that a sporting career is a dead end job… Too much pressure if something goes wrong and you can't play anymore"

 

Harry frowns into his drink as he rolls the opinion around his head thinking to his own job. It seem a little silly of Bobby really, because his own job is much the same.

 

"Yeah but that could be the same for any job. Singing is the same, my voice could go tomorrow and it would be all be over for me" he says watching as Niall nods in agreement.

 

"Yeah that’s what I said… But I guess it's because of the other stuff that happened too" Niall goes on trailing off slightly towards the end and looking back down to his phone.

 

A smirk settles on Harry's face. He'd known that there had had to have been more to it then what Niall had said earlier. Bobby wasn't as shallow to have banned Niall from seeing this Sean kid just because of his career.

 

"But it wasn't Sean's fault! He used to get taken to these huge after event parties and such. So we used to go to them and end up drinking a fair bit…" he trails off again allowing Harry to connect the dots.

 

"Well that doesn't sound good. No wonder he's so concerned about you. Sean should have taken you home or made sure that you didn’t get yourself into such a state" Harry tells him sternly, having a change of heart.

 

Niall of course doesn't take his opinion on the matter well and his previous gloomy expression twists into a bitter anger.

 

"Yeah well it doesn't matter now cause I'm stuck with you anyway" he bites back darkly.

 

"You're blaming me for your boyfriend issues? It's not my fault that your dad won't let you be with your alcoholic ex" he replies snidely.

 

"Don't call him that!" You're just upset that you can't go and get your heterosexual kicks!" Niall hisses loudly back placing a large amount of venom into his words which are poised and aimed to _hurt_.

 

Harry flinches back as they hit him watching as a satisfied looks sweeps across Niall's features. He grits his teeth in anger and turns to glare at an adjacent vacant table to the right.

 

So… Niall's just like everyone else. He's just as judgemental and opposed to being heterosexual as the rest. Why is everyone always so against him all the time? Why can't people just let him be?

 

Pushing back at the table Harry gets up and from the corner of his eye he catches the questioning look that Niall shoots him. But he no longer wants to continue dinner after such a sour comment. He's done what he needs to do and has shown Niall off to the media while painting the picture that they're the perfect pre-couple going to have a cosy private dinner together.

 

"Where are you going?" Niall asks him in a tone that you might use to talk to a disobedient five year old.

 

"Home" he responds angrily without looking back to him, pulling out his wallet from his back jean pocket ready to pay the bill for the drinks that’s no doubt waiting for them. "And you're coming too" he adds as an after thought.

 

He can't really leave without Niall after all. It would ruin that image that he supposed to be trying to create. By storming off without the blonde it would look as though the dinner had gone badly and the headlines tomorrow would _not_ be the ones that his management were wanting to see.

 

"But we haven't even ordered yet!" Niall tells him from the table in a heated tone.

 

"Doesn't matter" Harry mutters back in response. "I'll order something in if you're that hungry" he compromises.

 

"You're being ridiculous Harry. What's wrong? You were fine a minuet ago"

 

He doesn't answer the more than obvious question, and when it becomes clear that Niall isn't going to move without force, he reaches for the blondes slender wrist and yanks him from his seat.

 

"Oi!" Niall yells stumbling into him and attracting the attention of their waiter.

 

Strategically Harry leans down to his ear, keeping his voice low.

 

"You're going to hold my hand, put on that carefree smile and walk out of here with me looking like you're had the time of your life or so help me God, I'm going to tell your dad that you've been in contact with your ex"

 

Niall stills in his grip and looks as though he's trying to comprehend what he's actually just said. After a moment of deliberation on Niall's part, he looks back up at him with such a nasty look that it even takes Harry by surprise. Just as he's beginning to wonder whether or not he's pushed Niall too far, a hand slips into his and he stands up on the tips of his toes to press the curve of his lips against his ear.

 

To anyone else it might have looked seductive or as though Niall was pressing a kiss to his ear. But Harry knew it was anything but as the blonde hissed words into his ear.

 

"If you _ever_ threaten me _again_ I won't hesitate to make a scene in public the next time we're out - regardless of whether you tell my dad or not" he warns him darkly before pulling back and setting his best and brightest smile in place.

 

Harry can't find the right words to retaliate with and so Niall turns on heel walking towards the exit taking a stunned Harry with him. The Irish lad then makes a show of beaming to the girl behind the desk who had first served them while Harry pays the bill.

 

Even when they finally make it outside into the cold air Niall continues to hold his composure and keeping the bright eyed smile and sticking close to Harry's side until the reach his parked car.

 

However as soon as they across the threshold of Harry's apartment Niall disappears from his side and into the depths of his temporary room.

 

He can't help but feel an eerie sense of déjà vu.

 


	3. Take Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “There was no mistaking that faint Irish twang in the tone; Niall was the only other person in the house, and the alarm would have sounded if anyone had been stupid enough to break in. The only question was: what the hell was Niall doing up at stupid o’clock?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- Prompt by the amazing talkaboutnarry (go and tell her how amazing she is at http://talkaboutnarry.tumblr.com/)

During the middle of the night Harry finds himself abruptly awoken. He’d been having one of his more _unusual_ dreams again where he’d been repeatedly tearing holes into the knee pads of his black skinny jeans. After tearing the holes into them he’d find proceed to patch them back up again with a different strip of material; stitching neat rows of cotton securely into the material.

About halfway through his fourth pair his dream self had been startled by a loud bang from behind him. Upon turning he had watched in slow motion as a large roll of thick brown material came crashing down from a shelf towards him.

Of course when he’d opened his eyes again he found himself sitting bolt upright in bed greeted by the dark abyss that was his bedroom at 3am.

A soft curse reaches him from outside his room and he frowns in the direction of his open doorway in confusion. There was no mistaking that faint Irish twang in the tone; Niall was the only other person in the house, and the alarm would have sounded if anyone had been stupid enough to break in. The only question was: what the hell was Niall doing up at stupid o’clock?

For once he was thankful that he always left his bedroom door open. It meant that he was always aware when his guests were roaming about his house - and especially helped for when he had drunk friends staying over (Nick).

He swung his legs over the side of the bed, groaning when the cold air hit his boxer clad form. A quick stretch and swing of his arms and he moved up, ambling over to the doorway and out onto the balcony that overlooked his open plan apartment, scanning about for the blonde.

He sports a figure by the door thanks to the light pouring in from the huge glass fronted wall that overlooked the city below. He can just make out Niall’s form fumbling with what he assumes to be the handle for the door to his apartment - it’s a little hard to tell in the dark. He feels up the wall next to him, running his hands up and down trying to graze the light switch with his fingers. It takes him a minuet, and he curses the fact that he doesn’t know the layout of his home better, but he does eventually find it sweeping his fingers down and gracing the room with light.

His sight returns instantly and now he can see exactly what it is that Niall’s trying to do.

There’s a large suitcase by his feet - the same one that had come with him. It’s fully packed considering that it’s bulging at the sides and Niall is dressed up in warm winter clothes indicating that he intends to go outside - to _leave_.

"Where are you going?" he asks the blonde tiredly, as though this was something that happened on a regular basis.

Niall had jumped slightly when he had turned the lights on pressing his back to the door and wildly scanning the room. Of course upon finding Harry standing there he had instantly relaxed and thrown a frown his way.

"Out" he answered trying to be as awkward and genuinely difficult as he could be. 

"Out _where_?” Harry pushed leaning against the wall crossing him arms in a casual manner.

He was thoroughly determined to find out where, how and why Niall was leaving. Sure they had fallen out earlier, but Harry didn’t believe for a second that it justified Niall having to _leave_. Plus what the _hell_ was he supposed to tell his management team and Bobby when they asked where he was?

"This is about earlier isn’t it?" He asked scowling at Niall as the blonde flinched. "Look you don’t have to leave over that. It was just a stupid argument, we’ve had them before and we’ll most likely have them again"

This time Niall is frowning, mulling over his options as he stares at the floor in a silent contest. His hand is still on the door handle, resting there in case he needs to escape fast Harry guesses.

"Before… What I said to you at the restaurant upset you didn’t it?" Niall says slowly as he raises his head to look at Harry with a serious look etched into his soft features.

It takes Harry aback and all he can do is blink at him. Is Niall actually feeling bad for what he had said?

"So yeah, now this" he continues, gesturing to the space between them. "Feels really awkward, and I just need to be away from it for a while"

Harry’s not sure if it’s the light or whatever, but as Niall turns away he’s pretty sure that there are tears shining in his eyes. A wave of guilt builds up inside him. It’s not Niall’s fault that this had happened, and it’s not his either. He’d never asked for this to happen and he hadn’t forced Niall into this sham or a relationship - that was Bobby’s doing.

But point was that they were here now in this mess, and they had no choice but to go along with it. Neither side had taken it all that well and neither of them had tried to make it work.

"Don’t be stupid Niall. You can’t just leave!" he yells across the open space. "What the hell am I going to say when they start asking for you, or if your dad calls?"

Niall huffs picking up his suitcase again turning away to the door.

"I’ll call him and talk him down about it - you don’t have to worry about me"

He blames his already swirling emotions of anger for what he says next. It’s not like he had really meant it - but there were these annoying times when his brain didn’t quite speak with his tongue.

"I’m not worried about you! I just don’t need you to cause me anymore bother! All you’ve done since you’ve been here is cause me problems and get in the way. It’s no wonder your dad was so quick to dump you on me!" he shouts at Niall’s back watching as he tenses up at the shoulders.

Instantly he opens his eyes wide, playing back what he had just said in his head and going cold. Had he? Had he _really_ just said that?

He glances up to see Niall facing him wide eyed in shock as he watched Harry standing there in horror at what he had just said, (and yeah he really _had_ just said that). His pretty blue eyes are shining against the light and Harry wonders faintly whether he really will cry this time. The look on the Irish lad’s face quickly changes to one of hurt and Harry just wants to apologise to him and tell him that he _really_ didn’t mean it. He wants to say what an idiot he is, and that sometimes he just has these utterly _idiotic_ moments where he says the _complete_ wrong things and can’t stop himself.

His head drops in shame as the thoughts tumble about his mind. His brain must take pity on him though and supplies an eloquent apology for him a second later.

But glancing back to the blond he finds the door closing and Niall is no longer there.

-X-

In the end Harry had decided to just go back to bed and sleep the night’s events off.

However _that_ had been easier said than done.

The look Niall’s face from after he had spat such hurtful things to him was playing on his mind and he couldn’t shift the image from his head.

It was bad enough that the blonde was interfering with his waking hours, but now he was creeping into his sleeping time too! It was just rude.

He wasn’t even sure _why_ he was feeling bad about the situation really. He was meant to _hate_ Niall right? He’d just been sent to mess everything up for him, and even though he hadn’t meant to, it was all he was doing.

It was frustrating the hell out of him and the feeling that _something_ wasn’t right with the situation wouldn’t leave him be.

All Harry knew now was that he wasn’t okay with the look that Niall had thrown his way. His gut had churned uncomfortably when he had seen the look mould his features, twisting into something akin to shock - and dare he say hurt?

To make matters worse he didn’t have Niall’s mobile number. The conversation of swapping numbers had never come up due to _living_ together and Harry had never thought he would need to actually phone him. So now he couldn’t even check if he was okay (not that he wanted to or anything).

Which meant he was left hoping that when Niall had cooled off and was done with his little strop that he would come crawling back.

Hopefully…

Perhaps he should at least try and make an effort when he did. He could try and offer to be more mature and not freak out so quickly. Maybe Niall could even let up a little with his attitude. It might be a good idea to talk things through with each other and work out what they were cool with doing and what they weren’t. That way at least they would have some guidelines and rules of how far they could push things…

…What the _hell_ was he going on about?

Niall would come back when he was ready, and he would just leave it at that. There didn’t need to be any of this “maybe I should be a better person” rubbish. Niall had offended _him_. If anything it was _Niall_ who needed to apologise.

…But maybe if he was a little nicer he would look the better person?

He could at least try to befriend him a little and make it a little easier for them both. So long as Niall didn’t insult him no more he wouldn’t flip out on him again. But Niall just had this way of getting under his skin and making him thinks violent thought of murder.

It was like a freaking skill or something! Harry had never met anyone who could wind him up so fast. Normally he was so reserved, polite and well mannered. But then Niall came along and with just one look he could have him foaming at the mouth in a wild rage.

He was usually the type of boy that anyone would be proud to take home to their mother/father. He would smile and kiss their palm, nod his head and answer all the prying questions regarding his intentions.

But no, not with Niall. Niall would upturn his nose at all his efforts to be a good host. He would frown in displeasure when he offered him a drink as though he thought Harry would poison it if he accepted (although that didn’t seem like a bad idea half the time).

Harry shook his head and punched a fist into his pillow in a childish fit of rage. There was _no way_ he was going to be able to sleep now. Too many thoughts were whirling about his head making it hard to drop off.

He pushed himself up from the bed and rolled out dragging himself towards his curtain clothed window tugging back the drapes. His eyes scanned over the sleepy city watching the slow blinking lights as the sun began to rise in the distance.

Idly he wandered if Niall was okay, whether he had reached a hotel okay. God knows he would get into huge trouble if he hadn’t - no doubt both Steve and Bobby would hold him accountable for the little rich snob. So hopefully he knew the difference between the green and red light at the pedestrian crossings.

Harry grimaced at the thought of some pretty gruesome headlines that flashed across his mind. Niall was a smart kid though - at least he made himself out to be. All he could do was pray that he had watched enough TV to know the difference.

It looked like all he could do was wait.

-X-

Two days later Niall turns up on his door step looking the picture of annoyed. His lips are pulled into a frown and he’s looking away from the door and down at the cement under his feet. However the look melts away when he realises Harry has opened the door and is now stood gaping at him in the doorway.

Instantly he looks guilty and dips his head a little in remorse, fingers twisting and turning the zip tag on his hoodie.

"My dad said that if I didn’t come back here he’d cancel my phone contract, and since I don’t have a regular income I don’t have any choice but to do as he says" comes Niall’s awkward explanation.

Harry only smiles fondly at the scowl that’s become somewhat familiar to him, he swings the door back with a flourish, holding it open for the blonde to come in.

"Well you had better get inside then" he tells him leaning in close smirking.

Niall actually looks a little grateful - Harry has no idea why - and he even offers him a tentative smile as he passes. Although unlike before he doesn’t just waltz off to find a room. Instead he waits in the open planned space standing there like a lost little boy.

Harry pauses waiting for him move or speak to him, anything to make this a little less weird. He closes the door and stands there feeling odd within his own home while he lingers within the hall area wondering when Niall is going to dart off and unload his suitcase.

But he still doesn’t move; he keeps standing there in the middle of the room holding his bag close.

"Erm, are you going to go and unpack?" Harry finally asks staring at Niall like this should be pretty obvious since he can’t just stand there looking lost all night.

The blonde only blinks back at him slowly and nods after a moment of processing what Harry had just said.

"I, erm, yeah… Just didn’t want to come charging in like before" he mumbles in return snubbing the toe of his shoe against the floor.

He laughs at the response, and yet he doesn’t know why. The sound just bubbles up inside of him and spills over like a pot of boiling water – Niall must think he’s mad. But then he’s all hunched over laughing hysterically, hand outstretched pressing on the door to hold him up, and doesn’t get much time to think about it. He’s mad, he must be, and judging by the look of concern Niall’s giving him he must think so too.

“Are you… Okay?” the blonde asks watching Harry’s chuckles die down.

“Hmm, haha… Yeah…” Harry says back still giggling a little wiping his eyes with the back of his hand.

He then pulls himself up swaying slightly to the side as he does. A grin forms on his face as he regards Niall, bright eyes and a giddy sort of happiness brewing inside of him. He shoves aside the mess from the last couple of days, trying to just leave it in the past and forget about it. He needs to try and make whatever this is work for the sake of his career. He needs to focus on just getting through this, and perhaps making friends with Niall isn’t such a bad place to start.

“Hey, do you want to come and see me perform?”

-X-

So it had seemed like a good idea at the time, to ask Niall to come and watch him perform. In his mind he’d thought Niall could just tag along in the car and watch him from the front row.

Only now he’s being told that he was an idiot and that he should have told his management team earlier about such a decision – which has pissed him off because _they_ were the ones moaning that he didn’t spend enough time with Niall in the public eye. They’d told him that Niall couldn’t watch from the front row because there just wasn’t enough security for him. This meant that he would have to watch from the side of the stage behind the curtains, which wasn’t fair in Harry’s eyes. How was Niall supposed to get the full concert experience if he was half hidden behind the curtain?

However Niall didn’t seem to be so bothered by it. He’d instantly fallen into step next to him as he stepped out from the car that had driven them to the venue.

His fans had already been there, seeing as they were among the most well informed fans in the world, turning out in their droves to welcome and meet him. They’d congregated around the gates of the venue screaming, and made even more noise as soon as they spotted his car.

He’d caught a glance of the meltdown on twitter over tonight’s show. People had obviously seen the pictures circulating of the dinner that Niall and he had been on a week and a half ago. Naturally having the intense and overprotective fandom that he had they all had wanted to know who and where Niall had appeared from. So far they made managed to deduce that he was the son of one of his managers and was a university student – which was something that had impressed Harry immensely.

Of course the majority of his male fan base were gunning for Niall and wanted him very much dead. Some of the comments that he had read made him feel physically sick. He’d had no idea that people would get so upset about him having a boyfriend.

The announcement from his management had been made a couple of days ago and it was safe to say that his fan base had _not_ been pleased over the recent development.

He just _really_ hoped that Niall hadn’t seen the stuff that people were saying.

The blonde had sat with him while he went through his sound check routine sitting at the side of the stage looking out over the empty arena with shining eyes gazing out in wonder. It was, dare he say, cute just watching him light up at everything he saw. The way he wandered around the arena grinning and smiling like a child at Christmas; asking about every little thing.

He was clearly fascinated by the stage and equipment for some reason, and kept spinning around in dizzy circles hovering about the sound tech guys with heart eyes bobbing about to the music playing. He’d even run away with the band that played for Harry, having in-depth conversations with Jon, texting someone called Louis, getting himself into a jam session with Dan, Sandy, and Josh – but it was Josh in particular that Niall had gotten close to.

They had stood talking to each other for ages about drum kits and guitars and every other type of instrument between. Of course Harry felt particularly excluded from the conversation since he didn’t actually play any instruments (although he had attempted to try and learn the guitar without success).

It had been a great annoyance to watch the two of them prattle on and trading secrets. He’d been anxious to hurry up and move on to the next set, but since Josh was getting all chummy with his so called ‘boyfriend’ they couldn’t move on to the next track in the schedule.

In the end Harry had walked over taking a hold of Niall’s arm and pulling him away from the drummer boy. Josh had smirked at him; crossing his arms across his chest watching them storm away. The blonde he’d manhandled away had of course scowled at him and made a few lude remarks.

Thankfully Harry had managed to find another little niche for Niall to sit while he finished running through sound check. The sound techs had been loitering about the set as they usually did checking over all the stereos and speakers. They’d seemed like good babysitters to dump Niall on, and so he’d sneakily convinced them to take the Irish lad off his hands. Amazingly enough the bright eyed boy had seemed more than happy to go along with them and had quickly struck up a conversation about the brands and makes that they used.

Yeah turns out Niall was apparently doing some sound engineering course through a top notch university (home course naturally).

So they had a lot to talk about too - much to Harry’s displeasure it seemed Niall was getting in with all of his crew. There wasn’t a single person that had a bad word to say about Niall as the sound check came to a close. It was obvious to Harry that Niall was the living incarnation of annoying, but everyone else seemed to love him.

Even as Harry was sitting in the hair and make-up chair getting ready for the show his stylist, Lou Teasdale, was making cheery conversation with him while Niall sat making silly faces with her daughter Lux.

It was all very cute.

He’d hand selected out Niall’s place to stand at the side of the stage going as far to sort him out a chair to sit in while he watched the show. Someone had also given him an array of food platters to choose from, so there was no way he could possibly have a bad time in Harry’s opinion.

The show would likely take about 3 hours to deal with from getting on to the stage to meeting VIP fans and then actually getting into the car to go home - maybe 4 if anything dragged over the specified times.

He’d already done a few vocal warm ups and weirded out Niall more time than he cared to remember. The poor boy had sat atop of one of the speakers staring down at him with an intrigued look on his face, while Harry stood trying to make the most uncomfortable noises he possibly could. Needless to say he caught a few unusual looks being thrown his way.

It wasn’t long before Paul came looking for him raising an eyebrow when he found Harry stood between Niall’s legs frowning up at him.

It had _not_ been what Paul had assumed it to be. Niall had been going on about how his hair had fallen out of place and how there were curls hanging in his eyes. So Harry had tried a couple of times to dislodge them brushing them back behind his ears; but they’d just moved back into his eye line. So he’d told Niall to sort it after he’d sat there laughing at him for a couple of minutes.

Oddly enough the boy had agreed and extended his hand out, making an ushering sort of gesture for him to come closer. Harry raised a suspicious eyebrow at him and glanced to the space Niall had made between his legs.

“Seriously?” He asked in a deadpan voice.

“Do you want me to sort it for you?” Niall asked in return smirking at him.

“I’m not standing between your legs. Get up off your ass and come over here to do it” Harry replied crossing his arms defiantly at him.

“Fine, I won’t bother. Go on stage and get laughed at for looking like a tumble-weed” the blonde said laughing behind his hand.

Harry couldn’t help but stare at him for a moment, hoping that Niall would give and just move up off his arse and help him – but much to his annoyance he only continued to watch him with sparkling eyes. So he huffed glancing around looking to see if anyone was about to see the horrendous act he was about to commit. Clearing the area with his eyes it seemed that there wasn’t so he took a step forward walking into the space between Niall’s legs so that he could reach his bird nests hair.

The Irish boy grinned reaching up into Harry’s hair and smoothing it down from the roots, framing his face with the long curled strands of hair. He re-did it a couple of times, getting more frustrated each time it flicked back into the position it had already been in.

A whoosh of air leaves his mouth as he lips curl into a frown. Harry watches his face with a smirk, happy that Niall hadn’t been able to sort it straight away.

“For fucks sake, what the hell is up with your hair? It’s a mess! What the hell did you do, Lou made it look so perfect before” Niall rants combing his fingers through the apparent mess.

“S’not my fault it’s so wild” he counters sharply, trying to shoot him a mean look through the strands of hair Niall had pulled into his eye line.

“I know!” The blonde shouts suddenly reaching down into one of the deep pockets in his jacket.

Harry feels a sense of confusion drop through him and he frowns at the boy in front of him, hoping that this isn’t one of those plans that’s going to go horribly wrong.

“What are you doing?” He asks when Niall pulls a strip of black material from his pocket.

“You’ll see” is all he gets in return as the boy unwinds it, smoothing out the creases.

Hands move up back into his mane of hair wrapping the material around his head and tying a small knot at the back. He then tucks away a few loose strands securely I to the folds of the band before moving back to admire his handy work.

Harry only blinks back at the boy realising that he’s just essentially made him a bandanna.

“Do I look stupid?” He asks him bluntly frowning.

Niall grins and places his hands on his shoulders looking fairly proud of himself.

“Nope” he tells him, popping the “P” loudly.

It was at this point where Paul had made his grand entrance walking round the corner with a certain boldness in his step. He’d been halfway through his sentence, yelling Harry’s name and half threatening to “kick his ass” if he didn’t get on stage in 2 minutes.

Of course he’d stopped dead in his tracks when his eyes landed on them – not that it surprised Harry that he had. After all Niall’s arms around his shoulders and him standing between Niall’s legs staring up at him – yeah he’d of stopped in his tracks too.

“If you’re done doing whatever it is you’re doing-”

“Nothing’s going on!” Harry yelled quickly jerking away from Niall and stumbling back.

“-they need you on stage…” Paul finished with a raised eyebrow and a look that clearly said that he didn’t believe him.

“Okay, okay! I’m going” Harry says quickly patting his clothes down, flicking imaginary dust away.

Niall sits giggling away at him from the safety of his tall stereo box without a care in the world and Harry thinks it must be really nice having such a care free life.

“You” he says sharply pointing a finger at him. “Stay by the stage and don’t wonder off” it’s an order not a suggestion, but Niall laughs anyway shooing him away through chuckles.

Harry sighs and asks Paul to keep an eye on him. But as he walks away he hears Niall’s voice calling a cheery good luck to him. His head turns to look back seeing Niall waving at his retreating form, grinning brightly.

Just as he thought the show ends up going really well and he hears loads of guys in the audience telling him how much they love the new addition to his hair. He takes the opportunity to bring up Niall and tells them it was his idea – offside he sees the thumbs up from Steve. Of course the subject of Niall draws out hundreds of sharp high pitched squeals from the crowd.

It had surprised him just how many people liked Niall, but of course there were those who weren’t so keen. Some of the people in the crowd had made remarks and jeered up at him. He knew it was always best to ignore people when they said things, he’d been taught by his label to ignore it, but sometimes it was hard. Especially since these people didn’t even _know_ Niall.

In the end he’d settled for shooting a particularly nasty look to one of the guys in the third row and walked to the other side of the stage.

But other than that small incident the rest of the show had been great. The crowd had sung along to all of the songs and taken over at some points when he had directed the mic to them with a grand hand movement.

It was like having a shot of pure adrenaline flowing though his veins as he looked out into the crowd belting out the lyrics to his songs bobbing his head to the beat and dancing around like drunken fool. His eyes catching the reflection from the stage lights beaming down on his every movement and staring out into the seas of lights from the glow sticks that people were waving about. He just felt alive and as though he was living for the moment – and _God_ did it bring a true smile to his lips.

He was halfway through the last song; which was a teaser track from his latest album that was due out in a couple of months. It was a fast paced love song, one with a catchy chorus that he had written while standing out in the middle of a rain storm. Paul had been holding an umbrella over him at the time as they had been waiting to go into a meeting at some fancy restaurant.

It was a very cliché thing about two people falling in love but not realising it – the sort of thing that made guys go wild and start crying at the unfairness of it all. Girl could be just as bad; if not worse. But it seemed so far that they loved it and were all jumping about screaming their lungs out.

He smiled at the response and turned his head to the side and froze mid-step, brain pausing, but mouth still singing on autopilot.

There standing off to the side, hidden behind the thick ugly patterned curtain was Niall.

His face was flushed crimson from the dancing about that Harry had seen him doing earlier and his eyes – his clear blue _pretty_ eyes were so, so very _alive_. He looked beautiful, _stunning_ standing there beaming at him with such pride. Harry couldn’t deny it, it was true, he looked the picture of perfect.

He was about to flush red himself and maybe stutter out an apology to the crowd. But by the time he properly came round from the little reverie he’d just been in the lights above were dimming and the roar of the crowd was ringing in his ears.

-X-

“No Nick I don’t think you’re getting this. I. Hate. Him”

“But you were totally checking him out during your concert…”

“No! I just caught his eye while I was performing! I just wanted to make sure he was having a good time was all…”

“Sounds like love to me. All that romantic ambiance, decent lighting and an adoring audience to look on and sigh…”

“We were at a concert surrounded by hoards of screaming fanboys you twat…”

“Oh young love…”

“…Nick”

“Oh look, Ed’s home. Better go, speak to you soon Styles. Stay golden you saucy motherfucker!”

“Nick, You twat!”

It had been just over 14 hours since his live concert and Harry wasn’t feeling much better regarding his little incident with Niall.

Thankfully the blonde hadn’t mentioned it at all. In fact he’d been nothing but smiles and sincere congratulations when he’d wandered in from the stage after the show had ended. Apparently their shared look hadn’t meant anything to Niall – which he was extremely grateful for, because he _really_ didn’t want to have an in depth conversation over it.

He had no idea why he was even stressing over it in the first place. It _really_ didn’t mean anything, nothing at all, and yet here he was tearing his mind apart over it. Did Niall really not think anything of it? Had he even really noticed? Was he just playing it cool because he knew harry was hetro?

His fist finds the soft texture of the pillow on his bed, moulding into the fluffy surface as he hits it as hard as he possibly can. When had everything got so complicated?

God why did Niall have to be so distracting in the first place with his blue, bright blue, eyes and his perfect brown and blonde hair, and his stupid tight jea- stop it Harry.

If Niall was a girl he would have definitely said something by now. He’d have wined and dined her. He’d have smiled and laughed and charmed her with a dazzling smile and take-me-home-to-meet-your-parents sort of charismatic personality.

But Niall was a guy, and Harry wasn’t into guys. So he wasn’t going to wine and dine him, and no, Niall wasn’t going to be the attention as his award winning smile and appraising personality.

Sitting back on his butt and bending his knees up Harry wondered if he’d got too close too quick. Niall would make a great friend after all. He was the son of his manger and so it would the perfect excuse to meet up and hang out in general. He was fairly fun and seemed the type to be up for a laugh every now and then. But he didn’t want to give Niall the wrong idea. Niall was fresh out of a relationship and Harry was no rebound.

After all when this so called “relationship” ended Harry didn’t want to leave it on bad terms. That made for bad business.

Why was this so confusing?

“Hey Harry!”

Snapping out of his thoughts, Harry jumped slightly from his position on the bed, whirling round to stare at Niall standing in the doorway. He’d formed a bad habit of forgetting at times that he no longer lived alone and therefore didn’t have the freedom to let his guard down anymore.

“What’s up?” he asked trying to play it cool and pretend that he hadn’t just thought that someone was breaking into his apartment to steal his stuff.

Niall grinned in a cheeky sort of way making a pool of dread fill Harry’s stomach. What was this idiot planning now?

“So I was thinking, seeing as you’ve taken me to a concert and we’re getting on so well and all…” Niall says rocking back and forth on the heels of his shoes in a I’m-about-to-ask-you-something-that-you-may-or-may-not-like-but-just-go-with-me-on-this sort of way.

“Yeah?” Harry answers folding his arms in a guarded gesture watching Niall carefully.

“Well you mentioned the other day that you sometimes go to heterosexual clubs and meet up with a few friends, and we don’t exactly have anything to do tonight, and you know I just thought that maybe it would be nice to you know, make an effort and be interested in your life, and maybe just go and maybe jus-”

Harry raises his hand up and stops Niall mid-sentence raising an eyebrow at the blonde as he stood there with a grimace. He does indeed remember having a conversation with Niall the other day about the different clubs that he sometimes visited

“You’re asking me to take _you_ , who is meant to be posing as my boyfriend to cover up the fact that I’m attracted to woman, to a heterosexual club…” Harry drawls letting the words fall from his mouth in a bored tone, putting stress on certain words in an effort to make Niall realise how utterly stupid the idea is.

“Yeah, I think it would be a good way to meet some of your friends and get a feel for what you actually spend your days doing. Look I’m trying to make an effort here” Niall explains in an overly cheerful manner.

“Niall… I’m banned from going within in a 10 metre radius of any heterosexual bars, pubs or clubs. There’s no way this is happening” Harry counters watching as Niall’s face falls.

“Yeah, but you were telling me how much fun they could be and we don’t have to have an escort go with us. We could just wear disguises or something, look inconspicuous, blend in”

“This is such a stupid idea” Harry mutters bringing a hand to his face and letting out a lungful of air. “You really want to go that badly?” he then asks watching Niall through the gaps in his fingers as Niall nods enthusiastically.

“Why not?! I think it would be interesting. I’ve never been to one and this is going to be my only chance to right?”

“This is going to be interestingly stupid that’s for sure…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so new chapter, as always let me know what you thought. 
> 
> This again is both cross posted on Tumblr and Wattpad.


	4. Chasing Me Down Alleyways

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A thought then strikes him. He’s effectively trying to get off with Niall in a dirty alley way, but he can’t seem to find the strength to care. He’d much rather just stay here with Niall sharing body heat, and by the looks of it Niall doesn’t seem to mind the idea either

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- Prompt by the amazing talkaboutnarry (go and tell her how amazing she is at http://talkaboutnarry.tumblr.com/)

Harry frowns at the flashing lights of the club in front of them. He really didn’t want to be there right now, not with all these people around. God knows what would happen if they got caught – he’d be skinned alive by Steve.

Niall’s standing by his side looking around in fascination as different sets of couples wander inside tentatively holding hands. The clubs loud, playing booming music that battles against the other clubs and bars surrounding it, fighting to be overheard.

Harry had taken them to the opposite side of town where he knew there was a small cluster of hetrosexual bars and clubs close to each other, yet still fairly far away from the rest of civilisation.

After Niall’s little suggestion the other day Harry had finally caved and decided to take him to one so he would stop complaining. Obviously the blonde had been overjoyed at the news and had starting asking what he should wear, what sort of crazes were they into, what music do they play and every other question under the sun. It didn’t take long for Harry to get sick of answering such stupid questions, and so he had gone to bed, ignoring Niall’s shouts from downstairs and throwing himself against the cold sheets trying to find a comfy position.

However 5 hours later found Niall shaking him awake again, twirling about his room cheering something about needing to go soon and rambling about how they wouldn’t have a lot of time if they left too late. It took him all of 10 seconds to realise what he was actually prattling on about; and when he did he threw himself back into the mound of pillows behind him, much to Niall’s displeasure.

It just seemed like a _really_ bad idea to him and he wasn’t too keen about going through with it. Knowing his past luck he was bound to get caught, and when he did his management would no doubt drag him over hot coals for it. He would definitely have to enlist Niall’s help in coming up with some sort of clever lie to avoid his own death – or just dump the situation on Niall altogether and hope for the best.

But by the time he does manage to pull himself together, and actually get up off the bed to take a long hot shower, he finds Niall already dressed and waiting downstairs on his sofa swinging his legs back and forth humming a familiar tune.

He pauses blinking at the skin tight black jeans hugging the pale boy’s legs, and the well fitted white shirt, topped off with a black jacket and pair of sports branded hi-top trainers. It’s not much, but _God_ does Niall wear it well.

Still Harry’s got no clue why _his_ mouth has suddenly run dry, or why _his_ hands are shaking or _why_ there’s a sudden tightness in his pants.

Yeah that one’s definitely a mystery…

Just as Niall turns his head to look at him, Harry ducks his head and walks away in the direction of the bathroom in a robotic fashion, swinging his arms back and forth as he goes. It was meant to be his way if being inconspicuous, but he was pretty sure that it didn’t look as casual as he had aimed for.

As soon as he reaches his bathroom he quickly slams the door shut and stares around the room, finding his reflection staring back at him in the mirror in horror. It’s a fairly accurate description of how he feels right now, but again he doesn’t know _why_.

Stepping into the shower while still pulling off one of his socks he tries to imagine a naked girl pushing up against him. His hand turns the water on, letting hot rivets of water trail the contours of his body as he thinks of a slender pale hand sneaking down his wet skin teasingly. He leans back, closing his eyes as his imagination runs wild, providing the thoughts of wet boobs pushing against his chest and shiny lips at his neck.

His own hand slips down to a hardened cock between his legs cupping the organ and moving back and forth in slow lazy strokes. The feeling is brilliant, warm and definitely hot paired with the image of his fantasy woman rubbing up against him. His hand continues to rub at his now fully erect cock, sliding his thumb over the head in quick movements, gasping at the enticing sensations it caused.

He’s almost at his peak, flushed faced and hips jerking up into his hand, when his brain tries to match a face to the body of the lady rutting up against him. It provides him with the thoughts of her being blonde and possibly blue eyed with soft pale skin – and yeah, Harry could work with that. He pushes a little more, desperate to meet his limit, just a little more.

He hears his own moans echoing about the bathroom, bouncing off the walls and hopes to _whoever_ that Niall can’t hear him right now. The solid wall meet his other hand that isn’t jerking him off as it seeks something to grab onto for purchase as his fantasy lady moans in his mind.

He’s then thinking about the way she might say his name and tell him how _good_ he is, how _badly_ she wants him, and for _some_ reason his brain decides that she’s _Irish_.

Now Harry doesn’t have a problem with Irish people – not at all. It’s just that a certain _someone_ is also Irish. A certain _someone_ who has brought nothing but chaos and disturbance to his life. A certain _someone_ called Niall Horan.

At the thought of the other boy’s mere name everything comes crashing down and it’s Niall’s face that’s suddenly on his dream lady’s body. The image is enough to kill off any sort of sexual thoughts and feelings and it leaves him soft again in 5 seconds flat.

But Niall’s face isn’t so bad looking, and if he takes away the plump chest and replaces it with a flat chest and wiry muscles. Really the image isn’t so bad…

The thought of Niall writhing around moaning his name, half lidded eyes and flushed cheek-

No.

No, no, no, no, no, **_no_**.

Stop right there. _Why_ was he thinking about Niall like that? This was _not_ happening, he was _not_ thinking about Niall like that. He didn’t even _like_ the other boy like that!

He flings the shower door open banging it against the wall and slowly steps out into the bathroom, shivering as the cold air hits him, cooling off his heated body. His hand reaches out for a towel hanging on the rail besides him and brings it up to his mop of curly hair, rubbing the rough material vigorously into his damp locks. He then throws it down to the floor angrily storming out the room leaving the door ajar to filter out the steam.

The idea of leaving his towel behind turns out to be a bad one as no sooner is he out of the steamy room he walks straight into Niall… Literally.

“Woah! Watch it!” the smaller boy yells at him stumbling back a few steps.

Harry falters immediately - staring in horror at the blonde boy.

Niall had just walked into his bare wet chest. Niall had just _touched_ his naked skin… Why was this suddenly such a big deal!

He felt so conflicted and angry. All his life he’d been so adamant of his sexuality. He knew what he liked, and who he wanted to be with. But now, all because Niall had walked into his life, he was questioning himself. His confusion boiled over and morphed into white hot anger.

“Well you should watch where you’re going!” he snaps back at him flicking a few strands of wet hair from his face, narrowing his eyes at the other boy.

Niall straightens back up, unravelling himself to stand at his full height (which is still smaller than Harry, but it’s a good effort on the blonde’s side) and looks like he’s going to say something snide right back at him. But then he stops dead, staring at Harry’s naked form in front of him. His face twists into a horrified expression, gaping at him with a bright red flush that spreads all the way to his ears.

“W-why are you naked?” He asks stumbling over his words drawing back hesitantly, biting his lip in a way Harry _really_ doesn’t want to be thinking about after his little _incident_ in the shower.

Harry rolls his eyes at him in response and despite the situation crosses his arms over his still damp skin.

“Seriously? I’ve just been for a shower that’s why dumbass. Do _you_ shower wearing your clothes?” he says back with a slight sass in his tone.

“So? You should still be wearing a towel!” Niall shouts back, stepping forward again in a way which should have been intimidating if wasn’t for the fact that Niall was about as intimidating as a baby penguin.

“Niall, I _live_ here. I can do what I want. Stop being such a child” Harry tells him in response, raising an eyebrow as if he was surprised that Niall had even asked such a thing.

And with that he then slips past Niall strolling down the hall and into his room.

“Well you’re not the only person living here now!” The blonde shouts at his retreating back from down the hall.

Harry just waves him off, flipping his finger to him and dives face first onto his bed attempting to crawl into a small pit of shame. What was happening to him? He wasn’t homosexual – he wasn’t. He liked girls. He liked their smiles, their soft hair, and their pretty faces (with or without make-up). He liked their… Other areas, downstairs and up. Everything about the female physique was amazing.

But one blonde haired boy later and his entire preference towards all humanity was screwed up and back to front. God forbid he ever turned bi-sexual.

It was bad enough to be hetrosexual but to be into _both_ genders was practically something you could still be locked up for. The world was such a messed up place, it was a bloody preference for crying out loud! Should it really matter what people liked?

He shook his head trying to clear the thoughts from his head and glared down at the sheets. For anyone else who was hetrosexual this might have been a blessing, the idea that they might not be attracted to the opposite sex. But Harry was proud of his sexuality, and he was prepared to fight for it – if his management and potential loss of his beloved career weren’t looming over him.

But now everything was a mess…

“Harry are you ready yet?!”

Niall’s voice brought him out of his looming sense of dread and he sat up on his knees looking about his room to see if he could quickly grab a set of clothes up.

“No! Stop bugging me, sit your ass down and wait!” He yelled back rushing about his room snagging up fallen clothes to check if they were dirty. “God’s sake that boy’s gonna drive me insane” he muttered to himself slinging down another shirt that should probably go for a wash.

Niall yells another round of abuse at him from downstairs, but Harry doesn’t catch any of it, and instead makes faces mimicking him as jumps about trying to pull his socks on. He just hopes that Niall doesn’t come to check on him – not that he would put it past him to.

After battling it out with his socks, wrestling himself into a tight pair of black skinny jeans and fighting with his ramones t-shit, he’s left scouring his room for a jacket. He wonders briefly if he evens needs one, but a glance outside tells him all he needs to know, and since he doesn’t fancy having an outdoor shower he snags a clean one from his wardrobe.

Niall’s waiting for him at the bottom of the stairs, an impressively enraged look sitting upon his dainty features, tapping a foot against the hardwood of his floor. He’s clearly not happy with the wait and Harry gets why when the blonde points at the clock as a way of explaining his issue.

It’s nearly 10 o’clock at night, and while normally that would be fine, because clubs don’t close till about 4am, they had both agreed to be back no later than 1am. This was because of the paps catching them, most paps seemed to be swarming every street and alley by around two in the morning trying to catch the rich and famous stumbling about. So naturally Harry didn’t want to fall victim to that.

Which leads to now, standing there outside the club looking up at the familiar glowing light of one of Harry’s favourites haunts.

Already he could see a few familiar faces hanging around inside. He didn’t actually have “friends” there, he knew from experience that it wasn’t smart to. He knew he couldn’t completely trust people unless they had been forced to sign some sort of contract to keep them from blabbing to the press.

Even so it was still nice to see the same people every now and then.

“Come on!” Niall cries in his usual cheery tone, grabbing a hold of his hand and rushing inside with the excitement of a child.

Turns out the club is just as packed as Harry thought it might be. There’s people everywhere inside, and hardly any room to move. He can’t really see a spare slot at the bar and ends up fighting his way through a sea of people, all while trying to keep his designer pair of sunglasses balanced on his face.

He’s got Niall’s hand firmly grasped in his own, tugging the smaller boy along for the ride. Not that he seems to appreciate the effort from the babbled noises he keeps making from behind him. At several points Harry thinks he might lose him in the crowd, and due to the fact he doesn’t want to spend an hour finding him again, he pulls him closer to his body and wraps a solid arm around his waist keeping him close.

Naturally Niall squawks at the action and flails his arms about nearly smacking Harry in the face. But Harry grabs a hold of the flying limbs and pins them to his chest securing them down to avoid a black eye.

“Oi! No need to get so handsy, you don’t have to worry about me!” Niall shouts to him over the noise.

Harry rolls his eyes and scoffs at the suggestion trying to keep his sight set firmly on the promise of alcohol.

“I’m not worried about you!” He shouts back at the blonde. “I don’t just don’t want to waste my time and effort looking for you just because you got lost in the crowd!”

Of course Niall looks grossly offended, and it makes all this fuss completely worth it in Harry’s opinion.

Eventually they make it to the oversized crowded bar and Harry orders two glasses of something strong enough to make his eyes water. If he’s going to be in Niall’s company for a while he’s going to need to be sufficiently tipsy. It then occurs to him that he hasn’t even bothered to ask what Niall drinks, and that he may not even _like_ what he’s ordered. Just as he’s about turn around and double check the orders okay he imagines a small devil sitting atop his shoulder, telling him that it doesn’t matter and just let it be, while laughing manically.

In the end he takes the advice and grins as the drinks are placed down on the counter. He hands Niall his glass and watches his expression closely, taking note of the way Niall sniffs the top.

“What is it?” He asks, frowning down at the liquid swirling about the glass.

“Just try it” Harry responds biting back the smirk and trying to remain casual taking a swig from his own drink.

Niall actually takes his advice and lifts the glass to his lips and to Harry’s utter horror downs it in one.

He can only stand there staring wide eyed at him while the Irish lad wipes his mouth with the back of his hand breathing hard. He gives him a grin and slams the glass down on the bar.

“Y-you just…” Harry stutters pointing at him weakly.

Another leery grin paints Niall’s lips and a sly look in his eyes flickers.

“Of that’s nothing, used to drink much stronger stuff back when we lived in Ireland” he tells him casually resting back on the bar counter.

He’s about to give the blonde a smarmy reply, but out of nowhere another guy comes strolling over into their space grinning. He steps in front of Niall clamping a hand on his shoulder.

“Hey! Saw you down that pint” he says beaming. “Fancy joining me and couple other people in a game?”

Harry frowns at the guy and goes to politely decline, but Niall steps forward with a nod.

“No tha-”

“Alright, sure, sounds fun!”

He gives Niall a scowl, but the blonde doesn’t even glance at him. Instead he grabs a hold of Harry’s hand and pulls him forward into view.

“It’s okay if my friend comes to right?” He asks.

The guy takes a glance over Harry, and he notes the frown on the guys face as soon as he notices him. A moment passes and the guy tries to play it off in a humorous way, making a show of glancing him up and down.

“Yeah, sure. The more the merrier!”

So that’s how they end up in a dingy corner surrounded by empty glasses, cans and an array of different sized shot glasses. Some are half full and other are empty, there are playing cards littering the floor, remnants of poker games gone wrong. The seats are slightly worn and frayed around the edges, but Harry decides that they’re comfy none the less.

Harry wants to protest, tell Niall that this is a _bad_ idea. But Niall’s already getting friendly with everyone, he’s introducing them both to people, laughing and smiling. The guy who had brought them over, Tom apparently, is offering Niall a shot telling him to show everyone how it’s done.

Harry shoots the guy a nasty look as he proceeds to wrap an arm around Niall’s shoulder when the blonde does down it in one grinning from ear to ear. Tom congratulates him, going over the top and wooping loudly; drawing unwanted attention from the surrounding tables.

It goes on like that for a while and Harry finds himself making himself comfortable in the booth, sitting with his arms crossed and deadly gaze etched into his features. He can’t even go and flirt or dance with anyone right now! God knows what Niall might end up getting up to if he wasn’t there to babysit him – his entire cover could be blown!

But Niall’s looking a little drunk at this point. They’d been playing for about 4 rounds now, different alcoholic shots, cocktails, ales and vodka being placed in front of them each time. Niall had actually done quite well and had won each round so far, downing each challenge in one.

The problem was each round consisted of about 3 shots and whatever pint someone choose. So on average Niall had had roughly 12 shots and 4 pints. The other problem was that they were mixing the drinks heavily, and the pints weren’t just larger or ale - they’d also been mixing strong vodka into them. It was a deadly combination in Harry’s opinion.

The blonde was currently half lying across his legs rubbing his body into his in slow movements, circling his hips sinfully into the air, making all sorts of garbled nonsense.

“Ey! One more, one more!” someone yelled from the table pouring another drink into the used shot glasses littering the table.

Harry doesn’t remember her name, but he knows she’s one of the people they’re apparently drinking with. Her boyfriend’s sat next to her, again he doesn’t know names, sighing as he watches her overfill the glasses and spill precious liquid onto the already saturated surface of the table. But he doesn’t reprimand her, or even tell her off – he just laughs and lets her continue.

Idly Harry wishes he could have a relationship like that. All romantic and cute, gentle caresses and soft whispers of declarations of love. He doesn’t even realise until a moment later that he’s carding his fingers through Niall’s tussled locks lazily.

He glances down in horror to see Niall looking back up at him with hazy blue eyes, completely out of focus and so, so, blue under the florescent lights of the club. He groans slightly under Harry’s ministrations arching from the touch, and Harry wonders whether he’s fully aware of what’s going on right now.

He’s about to suggest that they go, or get some fresh air – God knows Niall needs _something_ right now.

But fate (the cruel lady she is) has other plans and they come in the form of Tom. The guy saunters over to them like he owns the place – and Harry tells himself that the only thing this guy is going to own is a black eye if he doesn’t back the fuck up.

He doesn’t take the mental warning on board and continues his advance until he’s in front of them staring Harry down with a leery look.

“Hey Niall, fancy a dance?!” Tom yells over the music blaring from the speakers around them.

The question takes Harry aback and as badly as he wants to form the words to tell Tom to shove his dance where the sun doesn’t shine, because Niall’s clearly in no fit state to dance, he can’t. The words don’t come, and Harry has to keep reminding himself that he’s not meant to _care_ , but he keeps messing up and getting involved!

He can only assume that Niall isn’t as incapacitated as he first thought as the blonde manages to get himself to his feet, albeit unbalanced, but up none the less. The obviously drunk Irish lad then grins at Tom, nodding his head and giggling drunkenly stumbling over to him and taking the outstretched hand.

As they leave Harry catches the nasty smirk sent his way by Tom and goes to stick two fingers up at him, but the two males have already disappeared into the crowd of people attempting to dance out on the floor.

Harry could point out several people who should probably call it quits and go home. Some of the people out there aren’t even dancing at this point and are just shamelessly grinding against each other, rubbing as much skin against their partner as possible. Normally Harry wouldn’t have a problem with this; in fact nine times out of ten he would just find a consenting partner and join in.

But then his eyes land on Niall and Tom, who are suddenly in the middle of the group, moving against each other. Niall’s got this delirious look about him, like he doesn’t even know where or who he’s with. His eyes are half lidded and although he’s laughing, Harry would bet if someone asked him where he was, he wouldn’t even be able to form a coherent sentence. Tom on the other hand is smirking deviously down at the blonde rocking in his arms. He looks like he’s about to do something nasty, and that most certainly _doesn’t_ sit well with Harry.

Again he chastises himself. He doesn’t like Niall, he _hates_ him. He shouldn’t care that Niall’s dancing with some other guy, it just shouldn’t matter. He should be looking about for a pretty girl to dance with. Someone who he can have a little fun with for the night and build up a fantasy world for himself where it doesn’t matter who he’s seen with.

However instead here he is seething over the fact that his fake boyfriend is in someone else’s arms with someone else’s hands all over him.

His fingers itch and stretch out for his abandoned glass of vodka curling his hand around it and raising it up to his lips. He downs the remains in one swig, wincing at the burn it leaves behind. Another soon finds its way to his mouth, and another, until he’s pleasingly buzzed.

He leaves it five more minutes, just watching Tom twirl Niall about like a ragdoll pulling him back and forth, feeling him up and down. Running those God forsaken hands all over _his_ blonde. As the minutes tick by he finds himself becoming more and more irritated by the whole situation. His bloods pumping through his veins angrily, churning up in his head and clouding his normally sharp judgement. The alcohol doesn’t help either and the faint remnants of his conscience reminds him that he should know better. Except he doesn’t know better right now, in fact he doesn’t know anything right now other than the fact that Niall shouldn’t be suggestively dancing with strangers in dingy clubs – even if it was him who had brought them here.

Teeth clench in his mouth and his feet kick back against the seat he’s currently residing in as he stands up. Ten quick steps across the wooden paved floor of the club and he’s out on the dance floor mingling with the sweaty bodies of various couples. His eyes are trained on two people in particular though, a certain blonde piece and a devious looking brunette.

It doesn’t take long to reach them when he uses force to shove people aside he finds, and despite the fact that it gains him a few unfriendly looks, he can’t find it within himself to care right now. Tom notices him straight away making a path of parted bodies in their direction, coming right up to them and cutting in to grab a hold of Niall’s wrist.

“If you don’t mind, I’ll be taking this one back now” Harry tells Tom firmly dragging a protesting Niall to his side in one swift movement. “Not that I particularly care if you mind” he adds just to be spiteful.    

Tom looks like he’s going to say something, maybe shout a protest and punch Harry straight in the face, he had after all been drinking heavily too like the rest of them. But he doesn’t get chance because Harry’s already storming away, taking a teetering hot mess of a blonde with him.

He’s not doing so well himself at this point though, and the focused determination he’d had about ten seconds ago had long faded. His vision was a little foggy and burred around the edges as he looked for a exit from this hell hole that he’d stupidly brought them to.

“S’all your fault!” he shouted back at Niall, still yanking him along as they tried to find the bloody exit.

“S’not my fault you turd!” Niall yelled back staggering a few steps behind him giggling at his pathetic attempt at offending Harry.

“Yes it is!” he hissed back, spotting a fire escape to their left and making a sharp change in direction mid-step nearly taking both Niall and him to floor with the abrupt movement. In his frustration he angrily whips his tinted glasses from his face, shoving them blinding into the pocket of his jacket.

“T’isn’t!” Niall called back. “S’your fault fer havn’ stupid hair! Yer look like a brown pom pom” he giggled, and Harry had just noticed how thick Niall’s natural accent had become, over the loud music he could barely make out the words.

Never the less he continued on reaching the door and repeatedly slamming his hands down on the odd silver bar of the door. It was one of those stupid doors where you had to push the lever down or up, and due to the poor lighting and his blurry vision Harry could hardly make out the words on the door where the instructions were printed.   

Niall looked pretty happy though and was taking much pleasure in watching as Harry battled it out with the door yanking and shoving at the obstruction. It had yet to even cross his mind that they could have just used the front entrance to leave.

In the end he wasn’t sure whether he had broken something or actually managed to figure out how the open the pissing thing. But whatever he had done the door was now open and he wasn’t about to question his sudden stroke of luck. Either way the result was that they now had a very urban view of a back street alley.

Grabbing Niall’s dainty wrist again he pulled them both through the exit and into the alleyway shoving Niall in front of himself and away from the still blaring music thrumming into the night’s air. His own ears were still ringing with noise and he felt like he had just performed a two hour concert with a pair of bad in-ears. He massaged his buzzing ears and poked them slightly in a sad attempt to dislodge the uncomfortable feeling, shaking his head slightly. It didn’t do much but Harry felt better for trying.

By the time he looked up for Niall, he found the blonde learning against the stone wall of the alley staring up at the sky in wonder. He trailed over to join him, mirroring Niall’s stance and looking up at the sky too. The stars seemed to be all out decorating the cosmos in a fairy light fashion, not a cloud in the sky.

“Ah… It’s beautiful” the boy next to him sighs, closing his eyes as his head falls back against the wall, shoulders sagging slightly.

Harry doesn’t know if it’s because his minds a muddled mess right now, and he can’t tell the difference between left and right or up and down, but he his mouth suddenly decides that there’s no need to consult his brain.

“Yeah you are pretty beautiful”

The words don’t even make sense because Niall had been talking about the freaking _sky_! But the sentence is already out there and Harry can’t take it back, because Niall sure as hell had heard him – and he knows that because his head has turned to look at him, hazy blue eyes trying to focus in on his face.

There’s an odd silence that stretches out between them, a moment where Niall simply stares back at him and Harry tries to will the ground into swallowing him up. Even when drunk it seems that he knows when he’s fucked it up.

“But… You hate me right?” Niall slurs back finally in a sing-song way, waving a finger about in front of his face.

He pauses taking in Niall’s words and frowns. He does hate Niall right? Niall equals bad things, like no sex with girls, and fake dates to high profile restaurants.

But then when he thinks about Niall, when he _really_ thinks about Niall, with no clothes and messed up sex hair…

He kicks back from the wall and swings round to crowd into Niall’s space, effectively pinning him up against the wall and stares right into shocked blue orbs. His hands have grabbed a hold of the smaller boy wrists and trapped them against his sides so as to keep him still. Niall doesn’t say anything, he just stares back into his fierce emerald gaze, looking likes he’s still trying to figure out what just happened.

Except he looks so _amazing_ just standing there, looking back at him and Harry can’t figure out what this _pull_ is when it comes to Niall. It’s frustrating and his brain is making all these odd suggestions as to how to sort it out.

He doesn’t even know if he means to do what he does next, and he sure as hell doesn’t give it much thought.

Lips descend down onto Niall’s waiting ones, moulding together in the cold nights air, sharing warmth. He finds his has to bend down slightly to get a better angle and twists his head to the side slightly in a way that makes it oh so perfect in a stupidly drunken sort of way. His left hand moves up and cups Niall’s cheek, turning his head to match his stance and make it much more pleasurable for him too – since Niall’s brain doesn’t have seemed to have caught up yet. Hands fumble about with his shirt, pulling and pushing against his body, and it looks like Niall’s trying to push himself up into the kiss too.

His tongue then darts through parted lips and into Niall’s waiting open mouth twisting into his tongue and coxing it into a dirty dance.

A thought then strikes him. He’s effectively trying to get off with Niall in a dirty alley way, but he can’t seem to find the strength to care. He’d much rather just stay here with Niall sharing body heat, and by the looks of it Niall doesn’t seem to mind the idea either.

Both hands then get a little more daring and dart down, heading towards the zip of Niall’s jeans, and yes that’s a good idea some part of Harry’s brain tells him. It’s a struggle as he attempts to re-discovery his motor skills, fingers fumbling with the metal. But eventually after much tugging, and inappropriate giggling from Niall, he manages to yank the zip down and un-button fabric. Swift hands dive into the warmth of the front of Niall’s jeans rubbing up against a half hard cock waiting for him, and Niall makes the most responsive noises he’s ever had the pleasure of hearing. He bucks against his ministrations, coaxing him into continuing, gasping and writing about under his touch.

Naturally Harry doesn’t need to be told twice and cups his hand around Niall’s balls, swiping his thumb over them drawing more pleased sounds from the boy beneath him. He watches transfixed as Niall’s cheeks flush red and the colour spreads up his the tips of his ears, he really can’t remember ever being so turned on in his life.

A flash of creamy coloured skin at the base of Niall’s neck spikes his interest and the idea of marking up the area with his mouth suddenly seems very appealing. So he does just that lowering his mouth to the blonde’s neck and trailing open mouthed kisses along his skin, occasionally licking and suckling at the pale expanse of skin. Again Niall must be fine with it because he lets out a sudden sharp gasp in between breathy pants and actually moves his head to the side to allow Harry better access.

It’s then Harry feels a hand move into his hair tangling in his messy curls, leaving burning trails against his scalp. He doesn’t mind, he even finds it slightly comforting, like Niall’s trying to spur him on in some way.

At this point he’s not even sure what he’s doing and he just sort of ends up awkwardly humping up against Niall’s leg, desperately trying to find his own release as the growing pressure in his own pants begins to strain up to the material.

The blonde doesn’t seem to mind much and instead hooks his chin up on his shoulder still making those intense sounds that driving him beyond wild. He finds his own breathe becoming laboured and struggles to get them in and out of his lungs – although he’s not sure whether it’s due to a mix of intoxication, lust and the fact that Niall is drawing such responses from him. Geez, he really needs to start up those 5am workouts again…

Thoughts of tailor made workouts fly straight out of his head when he hears a final hitched breath from Niall followed by the sexiest and downright _explicit_ moan he’s ever heard – and yeah that’s the result of Niall’s orgasm trailing down his fingers…

He can only blink as Niall looks up at him, giving him a sleepy grin before his falls limp against him. He quickly flairs bringing his hand sharply out of Niall’s pants and up to catch the boy and hold him securely against this body. There’s a sudden crush from his pocket and to his horror he realises that Niall’s body has fallen against his glasses and broken the lenses. 

God damn it, he hadn’t hit his own orgasm yet and Niall was breaking his shit!

But the fact that Niall had just _dropped into his arms_ is a little more pressing at that moment and his brain (which seemed to have just woken up and shaken a little of his alcoholic haze) supplies him with the idea that he should probably get them home…  

-X-

The sound of high pitched ringing greets him.

It’s loud, annoying and fucking _obnoxious_. Who the _fuck_ had set “ _Marimba_ ” as his morning alarm – it had to have been Nick being a little shit again. There was no one else stupid enough to do something like th-

“Wait, what time is it?” he mutters to himself, effectively cutting off his inner monologue.

He rubs his eyes with the back of his hand and sits up staring about himself – taking note of the fact that he’s dressed (in last night’s clothes yes, but still dressed all the same), thank God. He also realises much to his relief that he’s in his own home, and not in a dingy hotel suit. Hopefully there were no promiscuous pictures splashed across the pages of the daily papers.

There’s not much memory from last night. He knows he went out, and that the destination had been to a heterosexual club just out of town. He also knows that he hadn’t gone alone, he’d gone with Nia-

Shit.

He hand flies up into his hair, yanking at the roots in horror.

Shit, shit, shit, shit, _shit!_

_Niall._

_Him and Niall._

Oh, dear God, is all he can think while shoving his hands into his face curling over in shame.

They’d left the club, there’d been drinks, lots and lots of drinks, and Niall had been drunk, really, really drunk! He’d been tipsy too, _really_ tipsy, and hadn’t actually known what he’d been doing. But they’d done stuff anyway, they’d _done stuff!_ Dirty stuff against back alley wall, and they’d been drunk!

The shame begins to eat away at him. He hadn’t enjoyed it, he hadn’t, he couldn’t have. He was heterosexual and he liked woman!

But the image of Niall splayed out against the wall returns to his mind, the noises, oh dear God the _noises_ he’d made.

He feels his pants become tight again and tries so hard to will it away.

He thinks about woman instead, large breasted woman, the unattainable, false looking ones that cover the entire pages of dirty magazines. But it does nothing, not even a spark compared to the way Niall had looked begging for more against the cold, damp wall of the alleyway he given him a spontaneous hand-job against.

He’s about to jump up, scream and shout, _break_ something just to feel a little better about the mental breakdown he’s having.

But then the vulgar sound of a toilet flushing sounds from upstairs and his head shoots up to the balcony above him.

And standing there looking down at him with the most chilled out zombie like expression, brushing his teeth slowly like nothing’s wrong, is Niall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... Let me know if that one was kind painful. It felt painful to me because I'm never sure when it comes to smutty goodness... I'm more someone who would rather read it then write it... But hey! This fic was crying out for it and I thought I would give it a go... :D


	5. Toothbrush Troubles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry throws his head back against the sofa in a fit of rebellion. They’re about to have really important conversation about whether or not Harry had or hadn’t forced Niall into doing dirty things and Niall decides to go and wash his toothbrush! Right now! Really?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- Prompt by the amazing talkaboutnarry (go and tell her how amazing she is at http://talkaboutnarry.tumblr.com/)

 

* * *

 

 

He freezes in place looking directly at the blonde, waiting for some kind of movement or signal to run.

He imagines that Niall isn’t the forgiving sort, and the fact that he had had his hands all over last night probably won’t go down to well with him.

Then it hits him, like a cold unforgiving truth.

What if the whole things hadn’t even been consensual on Niall’s part?

Niall hadn’t exactly been in the right frame of mind last night, and it wasn’t like he had exactly asked him whether or not sucking face would be an okay thing to do. He was pretty sure that if Niall had of come on to him out of nowhere that he wouldn’t have been fine with it. He might have even punched Niall in the face and run off. But Niall hadn’t even really been in any fit state to defend himself.

Oh God, it was just getting worse and worse the more he thought about it! There again…

Does Niall even remember what happened last night?

He’s staring blankly at him, and there’s no hint of rage or signs that he should dive for cover. Tentatively he moves his body, shifting on the sofa to get comfy again and lifts his head to properly look at the blonde.

“Morning” he mumbles, just loud enough for Niall to hear.

The sounding of the toothbrush grating against Niall’s teeth stops and he looks down at him slowly nodding his head.

“Morning…” He says back raising an eyebrow at him. “How are you feeling?” he then asks before going back to scrubbing at his teeth.

He’s about to reply and tell him fine, just a little tried, when a pounding in his head hits him like a hammer.

“Son of a-!” He yells smacking his hand into his head and pressing the heel of his hand into his temple, trying to soothe the torrent of pain. “Fuck!” He whines.

The sound of musical laughing reaches his ears and he shoots a nasty look Niall’s way, spotting him hunched over giggling away at him on the balcony.

“Why aren’t you in pain?” He asks spitefully trying to keep his voice low to avoid setting of the explosion in his head.

Niall uncurls himself, still with that annoying grin playing on his lips, and points his toothbrush to his chest proudly.

“I don’t suffer with the after effects of alcohol so much; I just tend to be tired after a night out. It’s probably my Irish blood, got alcohol running through me veins” he tells him sounding proud of himself and a little smarmy at the same time – a deadly combination.

“Well aren’t you the pissing lucky one…” Harry grumbles bitterly settling himself back down into to the covers and resting his head on the arm of the chair.

“I know right!” Niall continues cheerily. “Don’t get any of those bad headaches and sickness. Not stomach cramps or memory loss… Although I think I fainted last night at some point… But wasn’t that drinking game brilliant! I’ve never met people with suc-”

Harry freezes on the sofa again, latching onto the part where Niall had said he didn’t suffer memory loss after drinking heavily. He feels like the blood is draining out of his face again, and the image of him standing trial is presented to him oh so conveniently by his imaginative brain. He can see himself stood there facing the jury detailing ever dirty act he’d placed on Niall as the blonde stands behind him weeping into his father arms. He really isn’t doing himself any favours right now…

“-rry, Harry? Harry!”

He jerks back into realty trying to throw off the mental images that had been giving him a borderline heart attack and takes a moment to breath.

“What? What?!” He yells back at Niall frowning up at him before feeling another stab of pain poke him and massages his head rubbing at the spot with his hand.

For his part Niall only frowns, pulling the toothbrush from his mouth once more and rudely pointing it at him.

“What’s with you? _You’re_ acting really strange. There again you were last might too…” He looks thoughtful pressing a finger to his chin and frowning.

“ _I_ was acting strange?!” Harry finds himself yelling before he can stop himself, the move isn’t a smart one and he immediately regrets it as his head scolds him for the action in the form of physical abuse. “What about you?!” He adds in a harsh whisper.

“ _Me_?” Niall asks sounding aghast, as though horrified that Harry could accuse him of something like that.

“Yes you” Harry snaps back. “You were dancing with randomers all night!”

“It was one guy Harry, and you were the one getting all jealous and tugging me away” Niall dead pans back rolling his eyes like Harry’s some little child he’s just scolded.

Harry feels the blood in his veins pumping around faster, becoming more boiled as the conversation drags on. How _dare_ Niall accuse him of being jealous! He’s _not_ jealous, he’s never been jealous in his life!

“Hold up one second” Niall then says turning his back to him and starting to walk off.

“Wait, where are you going?!” Harry shouts, nearly slapping himself when he once again forgets that raised voices are a no-no right now.

Niall holds the toothbrush up again waving it about in circles for him to see.

“Need to rinse my mouth out and clean the brush, one second”

Harry throws his head back against the sofa in a fit of rebellion. They’re about to have _really_ important conversation about whether or not Harry had or hadn’t forced Niall into doing dirty things and Niall decides to go and wash his toothbrush! Right now! Really?

He can’t be that upset about it then, he tells himself staring up at the ceiling and counting the titles to try and take his mind off the pain upstairs in his body.

“Fuck” he whines to himself and slides his body off the sofa heading for the kitchen in search of blessed relief in the form of headache tablets. He manages to dig a packet out from the small box of medical supplies in one of the cupboards and breaks free two round pills. After fighting it out trying to shove the box back from where he’d pulled it from, he pours an ice cold glass of water and downs both it and the two pills waiting innocently for him.

It’s at that point Niall conveniently reappears running a hand through his hair yawning. He’s dressed in what he had been wearing last night, but the tops now wrinkled, and so’s the jacket, and one of item of clothing must have been the victim of a spilled drink because he can smell the strong scent if vodka on him.

…or maybe that’s him, he can’t really tell.

Either way he looks as much a mess as Harry himself probably does.

“So… You’ve taken something then?” Niall asks him.

“Yeah, hoping that it might kick in soon” he answers leaning against the counter behind him trying to gauge the situation.

“So…” Niall says dragging out the “O” and making some sort of vague hand gesturing to him.

Harry feels his hands to start to sweat and rubs them together to try and rid it. He _really_ doesn’t want to have this conversation with Niall. He’d rather jump out the window and face the concrete belo-

Okay so maybe that’s a bit extreme, but either he just wants to the ground to swallow him up so as he can disappear.

“What… What do you remember from last night..? Like after I pulled you out of the club?” He asked flicking his gaze from Niall to the floor and then back to Niall again quickly before darting back down.

There’s a silence, that awkward type where no one knows what to say and it drags out waiting for someone to cough awkwardly and break it. He’s not used to dealing with this! He’d not had to have conversations like this since he’d been enlisted by his record company. People usually did this sort of thing for him, they gave him the answers to tell people.

But now standing here in front of Niall, probably being dissected by his eyes, he feels like he’s 12 years old standing at the front of a class while people stare him down.

Just as he’s about to call it quits and walk away in some sort of survival instinct way a laugh breaks through the air.

He feels mortified and the blood rushing through his veins freezes momentarily, as though struck by a strong current of electric – and Niall might as well have yanked the live wire from the electric box and stuck it against his skin at this point. His whole body goes rigid and his shoulders tense up ready for confrontation; because had Niall Horan just _laughed_ at him?

Turns out that yes, yes he had, and he still is.

Body bent at the waist and arms clutched around his sides, trying to keep himself up as the waves of laughter rack him – and oh yes, this is _very_ pissing funny Niall.

Harry feels an annoyed twitch in his lip and his eyebrow is mimicking the movement spasming up and down in irritation.

“I don’t see how this is funny Niall” he hisses at the deluded boy in front of him.

Niall waves a hand at him still giggling and looks like he’s trying to pull himself together again and recompose himself. He straightens up, smiling widely at him, raising a hand to his mouth in an attempt to cover the bubbles of laughter.

“Sorry, sorry!” He says. “You’re worried about the steamy make-out/hand job right?” He asks and Harry has to wonder why he pairs the remark with a Cheshire Cat grin.

He nods anyway, throwing in an odd look with it waiting for the boy to continue.

“Ah, you don’t have to worry about that” he tells him waving it off as he fetches himself a glass of water turning his back on him. “It’s already forgotten about on my end, I won’t mention it again if you like”

While relief floods him, because hey Niall’s not bothered by it so that’s good and things don’t look as though they’re going to be awkward, he’s still concerned as to _why_ Niall’s so chilled out about it. He’s still fresh out of a relationship right?

“How come you’re so fine with this?” He asks suspiciously narrowing his eyes at the blonde who turns round to face him mirroring his image and leaning against the counter top.

“Well it’s just your hormones finally catching up with you right? We were drinking and having a good time so these things just happen sometimes” Niall explains to him adding a small shrug at the end.

The more Harry thinks on it he realises that Niall has a point there. They _had_ been drinking a stupid amount of alcohol, and Niall at least had been having a good time, and he, well he’d just been the one who had gotten a little carried away. The heat of the moment kind of thing.

He smiles to himself letting a grin fall over his lips and a final resolute nod at the situation. Yep he’s okay, he’s not going to end up in court.

But then as Niall walks away again, with that annoyingly sexy sway of his hips, he turns his head back looking over his shoulder with a smirk.

“However you know what they say right? Drunken words and actions are sober thoughts and desires…”

Harry shoots his head up to look at him, staring at his figure halfway up the stairs looking like some angel of death.

“What… did you just say?” He asks in shock, trying to make his brain catch up with to the situation, and fast.

Niall just smirks again making some sort of amused sound.

“Oh come _on_ Harry! We all know you’re not really as straight as you try and make people believe” Niall snidely comments making a grand gesture into the air as he continues walking up the stairs.

“Shut up!” Harry shouts back balling his hands into fists. “You don’t know anything about me!”

There’s a pause in Niall’s step and he comes to a stop halfway up the stairs, placing a hand on the railing and half turning to look at him again, a nasty gleam in his eye.

“Oh but I do” he coos softly before turning round completely and pointing a finger at him. “I know that you’re only convinced that you’re heterosexual because of your mum and you think you’ve got a point to prove”

The words leave him cold, like someone’s injected a lethal dose of dry ice into his blood steam. He feels sick to his stomach as he thinks about his mother in his minds eyes standing there with a smile on her face looking up at Robin, his step father. His eyes glaze over with heat and when he looks at Niall all he can see is red.

“Don’t you even fucking talk about my mother” he says darkly to the blonde taking a slight step forward.

“You know it’s true” Niall continues. “I mean you seemed quite happy about feeling me up down that back alley, and you were getting pretty into it. So how else would you explain that huh? If you’re oh so adamant that you’re into girls, why the hell did you get off with me?”

“I said _shut up!_ ” Harry roars practically flying up the stair case towards Niall.

He grabs a hold of the front of his top, still feeling the pounding in his head, but the pure fury that’s coursing through him from all Niall’s sly little comments is enough to dull it to a slight ache. He’s breathing heavy and has the blonde pinned against the wall glaring at him as he takes a moment. But Niall doesn’t seem to care and the temporary shock from being slammed into the wall has worn off, leaving him with that smarmy look.

“Well isn’t this familiar” he taunts leaning a little closer to him so as he can whisper in his ear. “Like I said Harry give it up”

He wants to hit him. He wants to reach up, curl his fingers into a fist and smack him straight in the face.

But he can’t…

The image of Niall on the night when he’d taken him to the concert. The way he’d looked at him while he’d been tying the bandanna around his head, his laughter and the way he’d wished him good luck. Even the way he’d felt rubbed up against him in the dingy alleyway, moaning into his ear while he’d rolled his tongue about his skin.

His fingers go slack within the material at Niall’s collar that he’d been holding him up with. He drops his head to look at the ground and slowly brings Niall back to the floor again.

Niall readjusts his outfit smoothing out the crinkles that Harry’s made from scrunching up his shirt. He then looks back up to Harry frowning but the curly haired lad is already walking away in slowly, slouching steps.

“Where are you going?” He calls out to him wondering what the hell had just happened. He’d half been expecting Harry to hit him – not that he’d been even remotely aiming for that.

“Shower” Harry mutters back, reining his emotions in and keeping his head turned away.

“You can’t keep running when things get bad!” Niall shouts back from the top of the corridor frowning at his retreating form.

Now that the adrenalin that was rushing through his body has died down, the pain in his head is back with vengeance. It literally feels like someone is smashing his head against a brick wall.

Fuck Niall and his stupid immunity.

Wait…

No, _don’t_ fuck Niall.

Screw him? No that’s just as bad.

Whatever, Niall’s stupid and so’s his sudden unearthly immunity to hangovers – like who’s even that lucky anyway?

Must be the Irish genes kicking in.

Either way Harry is so done with Niall’s bullshit at this point. What was even talking about anyway, trying to prove something just because his mum had been heterosexual? That didn’t prove anything, and how the hell had Niall known about his mum anyway? Looks like someone had been digging through his dad’s files. After all Bobby was the one who had dealt with all his personal paperwork.

His gives a heavy sigh and shoves the bathroom door open angrily. He’s in desperate need of relaxation right now.

Hands quickly yank at last night’s clothes, flinging them into an overflowing wash basket at the side – idly he sets himself a mental reminder to actually do some washing.

Thankfully the waters brilliantly hot when he turns it on and he can feel the hot water loosening his muscles, note to self the sofa was not the best place to sleep all night. It still wasn’t properly broken it yet and the cushions were a little stiff still. But it looked like that was where he’d collapsed last night when they had made it back – Harry can faintly remember hitching a taxi back trying to keep his face covered by his jacket to avoid being noticed.

He slowly starts to wash himself down, finding a bottle of opened body wash and pouring a generous amount into his hand. He reaches across for a flannel sitting innocently on a shelf higher up in the cubical and scrubs off last night’s grime.

A shudder goes through him at the thought and he makes sure to apply a bit more shower gel to make sure he’s clean.

Normally he would have soaked a little longer, but right now he’s so annoyed that he just wants to go and put his head down and get a good sleep in his own bed. Plus there’s the fact that he his feels like it’s about to implode. Yeah, a good sleep might make him feel a little better right now.

Once out the shower and dry he purposely doesn’t bother with a towel and smirks inwardly as he strolls down the hall completely naked and baring all. That’ll show Niall all the fucks he gives – none.

The sight of his bed almost brings tears to his eyes and he’s quick to leap in, snuggling under the soft fluffy sheets and lying his head strategically on the pillow so as it doesn’t add any more pressure to his throbbing skull.

He’s not trying to prove anything, he tells himself as he curls into a ball – and those are his last thoughts as the darkness of sleep caves in.

-X-

Sharp ringing awakes him from his deep slumber, and for a brief, half-awake moment, he concludes that the fire alarm is going off and decides that he doesn’t care right now and is happy to go up in flames.

But then he realises that, _shit the fire alarm is ringing_ , and jumps up to his knees to find that his phone is simply buzzing on his night stand.

“You asshole” he comments groggily spying Steve’s name flashing across the screen through blurry eyes.

“What do you want, it’s too early” he whines down the phone rubbing a hand down his face.

“ _Too early? What are you talking abo- Oh wait, I bet you’re still hung over aren’t you?_ ” Steve says chuckling all the while. “ _It’s 10pm Harry”_ Steve informs him.

“Well it’s too late in the evening then, either way, what do you want?” He asks again, irritated that the man won’t just get to the point.

“ _I assume you haven’t seen the papers today have you?_ ” Comes the serious response.

At this point Harry’s pretty sure that his heart won’t take many more surprises, but it still manages to skip a beat anyway.

“ _Shit_ , what now?” he grumbles before trying to dislodge himself from the sheets of his bed. “Hang on a second” he tells Steve and throws the phone down.

He yanks back the sheets and stands up looking about the room for his dressing gown, before tugging his phone back into his hands while tying the sash at his waist.

“ _What’s taking so long?_ ” Steve’s asks rudely.

“Calm down, Niall’s got a thing about nakedness, so I’ve got to grab a robe before I go storming downstairs. Don’t want him bitching at me” he huffs.

“ _Why are you naked to starts with, and why does it even matter, you’re dating right?_ ” Steve obnoxiously assumes.

Harry rolls his eyes at Steve’s stupidness and all but tears his bedroom door off its hinges as he opens it flying out and sharply turning the corner.

“Okay, well I’m naked ‘cause that’s how I sleep – don’t question my preferences. B: I don’t know what’s wrong with Niall - there’s too many things on the list and I don’t have the time to analyse each issue. C: no, we’re not dating and never will be ‘cause we’re just not compatible” he says answering each concern of Steve’s as flawlessly as he can.

“ _Hmm, well that not what the rest of world thinks…_ ” Steve answers sounding out the words slowly – and Harry can just imagine him scratching his chin while doing it.

“What are you talking abou-”

“Hey Harry, you’re up” comes Niall’s voice as he stalks down the stairs and into the living area.

The blonde comes forwards slowly with what’s looks to be a paper in his hands. He brings it up all but shoving it into Harry’s face as he does, clearly not caring for the fact that he’s on the phone.

“Have you seen the pape- Oh you’re on the phone, sorry…”

Normally Harry would have laid into him. Normally he would have snatched the flimsy paper out of his hands and shoved it back at him. Normally he would have stormed off after doing so and made himself a good cold glass of water.

But then normally there isn’t a full spread picture of Niall and him passionately making out spread across the front page of the City’s most brought national paper.

-X-

“You two are brilliant! Way to make a statement. Everyone loves it! The passion, the romance! You’re the most talked about celebrity couple on TV at the moment, and with the album release coming up soon, it’s the perfect time to strike! Obviously you’ll be doing a lot more promotional work for the album so-”

How did he fuck this up so bad? How had this gone so tragically wrong?

The articles that had been published never mentioned anything about the heterosexual bar that they’d been making out against – and this was something he was most thankful for. Lord knows what would have happened if people got smart and put 2 and 2 together and got 4.

Right now he doesn’t need anymore publicity – it seems the picture had already done enough damage.

His Twitter account had all but blown up with activity – his fans were _not_ best pleased. However all of the girls seemed very happy with his choice and a lot of their tweets had been well wishes and “get in there Harry” had been a popular one. It was all very bizarre when it was meant to be female attention he was aiming for.

However his male fans _were not happy_. Most all of their tweets had been threats of murder towards Niall and “who does this Niall kid think he is?????!!!”

Harry was pretty sure that the blonde was going to have to either delete his twitter or make it private.

But there were the few guy fans who has been lovely and had written kind comments congratulating him – because now Niall and him had been published on the front page of every well-known paper and magazine sucking faces, this now made them “official” apparently.

What the hell ever happened to the Facebook relationship status being the decider?

He gives another heavy sigh and shakes his head. Of course there was now the problem of that picture of him and Niall…

God dammit…

“Harry!” a shrill voice yells, and Harry’s head snaps up to stare at his marketing manager, Liz. “Harry are you even listening? This is important, please pay attention” she says reprimanding him.

He gives her a meek look and sits up a little straighter in his seat. However he’s not immune to the scathing look that Steve’s shoots his way – even Niall was making faces at him that little shit. It seemed the blonde had resorted to blaming him for this mess and for the fact that he had even had to come to this meeting in the first place.

After Niall had all but shoved the paper in his face, he’d sort of freaked out and started shouting at Steve, asking how the hell he could allow something like this to happen. Steve, however, had thought that the picture was an act of God and had been very happy about it. He’d continued to congratulate him and tell him how wonderfully he’d done, and after another wave of praise thrown his way he’d then asked for him and Niall to come and see him for a meeting to discuss the next move, like this was some sort of strategical war they were planning.

This then had lead them to being sat in Steve’s office the following morning listening to Liz prattle on about how the media was taking the sudden story, and how the fans were reacting and giving them the stats and figures.

Harry didn’t see how it was such a big deal really – and why the _hell_ were there _figures_ for his relationships all of sudden anyway?

“So as I was saying before, we need to strike while the irons hot, as they say”

Who even says that, Harry thinks to himself staring blankly at the wall behind Liz’s head.

“So I propose that Niall and Harry go out for another dinner date, however it might be good for them to be out doing something else as well, so it doesn’t become too much of a pattern… Perhaps something simple, like a day out in the city, do some shopping, browse through some shops, take some pictures with fans…”

He can’t help but sink in his chair again, sliding down the back rest. It’s a horrible idea, and he wants to tell them. He wants to stand up, shove his chair over and walk out the room while telling them to go shove the idea where the sun don’t shine.

Sadly he can’t do that without the possibility of losing his career, or being forced into something horrible. So he stays where he is and continues to sulk over his impending doom. Don’t they realise the fans are already pissed off with his sudden change in relationship status. Is there really any need to make it worse?

“That’s a wonderful idea Liz, I think it will work quite well – with the right co-operation that is…” Steve says sending a brings smile his way that clearly says you-better-do-as-you’re-told-or-so-help-me-God-I-well-end-you.

Needless to say all Harry can do is give a huffy breath and nod his head.

“Fine…” he mutters out in confirmation.

“Oh Harry no need to sound so excited” Liz says sarcastically placing both her hands on her hips dramatically. “What’s the problem, you’ve got a lovely boy on your arm, and you’re living the dream - don’t be so ungrateful”

Now Harry likes Liz normally, she’s a lovely independent woman – with a great rack… Not that Harry’s been taking a look or anything… Well not for too long.

Anyway…

But yeah, normally she’s harmless and he doesn’t have to see her too often. However his first impression has now completely changed. She’s now been demoted to bitch level, somewhere Harry only places the people who _really_ get on his nerves or have inflicted a great deal of upheaval to his life – Steve.

Wow he really does hate everything right now.

“So does that all sound okay with you Niall?” Steve asks giving Niall a much softer look then he’d allowed Harry, something the curly haired boy makes sure to document.

His make shift boyfriend nods his head, also smiling – and what the hell prey tell does he have to smile about?

“Yeah that’s fine, no problems here” the blonde then answers brightly.

“Good so we’re all sorted then. Hopefully by the end of this everyone should have forgotten about you’re previous… Escapades” Steve summarises making extra sure to shoot a grim look at Harry.

“I’ll be sure to look into having a couple of the guys from security go with them, just let me know the dates” a thick Irish voice comes from the corner and oh yeah, Harry had forgotten that Paul was here too.

“Ah yeah, I think next week should be alright… Harry’s got a couple of press conferences to attend and another advert to shoot for, so that will give us a good week to sort the final details and book restaurant reservations”

At this point Harry doesn’t think he could slump any further down in his seat, he’s practically halfway to the floor anyway.

Can this get any worse?

-X-

“You do realise that this is your fault right?”

“Leave it Niall, seriously”

“No honestly, at this point I don’t even think I can be blamed for the picture”

“Niall…”

“No, I was completely gone at the time, so therefore it fell to you to have brought me home and left it there. But _no_ you and your horny little self decided to ravage me against the wall behind th-”

“Will you _please_ shut the fuck up?!” Harry yells at last throwing his arms down by his side, adding the fact that he’s _really_ not in the mood to deal with Niall and his mind games right now.

“Geez, what’s wrong with you all of sudden” Niall mumbles as they make their way back into Harry’s apartment.

“What’s wrong with me? What’s _wrong with me!?_ You really wanna know? It’s this _whole_ situation. I can’t be doing with this “fake relationship” thing. It’s driving me crazy! All these stupid fake dates and “oh, remember to hold hands and treat each other like you mean the world to each other” it’s all fake! I hate lying okay, I’m no good at it. So yeah, that’s what’s wrong with me. You happy now?”

Harry turns to stare at the small blonde, still seething and heaving heavy breathes, as he looks to Niall, small and innocent looking Niall. He’s just looking at him and Harry swears he can see the small specks of admiration floating in Niall’s blue eyes.

“Yeah I am. You finally actually told me how you’re feeling for once instead of bottling it all up. So yeah I’m happy”

Harry can only gape at him before dropping into the sofa at the side of him. He can’t take Niall’s sudden 360 mood swings, what is with this boy? He’s so infuriatingly, annoyingly, mood changingly, sexy lookin-

Wait…

What?

No, forget that last part!

_Fuck!_

“You know what? I’m going to go to bed” he finally says pushing off the sofa and heading in the direction of the stairs wearily.

“Already? It’s only 11 Harry” Niall tells him. “You’ve got a photo shoot at like half twelve right?”

“Urg, I don’t care, cancel it or something for me” he tells him waving a hand dismissively in his direction.

“Hey! I’m not your secretary, do it yourself!” He hears Niall shout at his back, and isn’t this how they have most of their conversations?

“Yeah, but you’re my boyfriend right?” Harry tells him half turning his head and putting the most seductive smirk on his face that he can manage.

Niall actually, to his utter surprise, flushes bright red and looks to the floor in embarrassment.

“Only when it suits” he retorts still looking the picture of cute, and yeah Harry reckons he could get away with calling him that.

“You know you love me” he calls over his shoulder heading down the hall to his bedroom.

“Oi! You can’t just cancel a photo shoot!”

Harry pretends to have not heard him, continuing on into his room instead, already taking off his clothes as he does.

Being naked has it charms that’s for sure. It means he doesn’t get as hot in bed, and he just feels more comfortable when in his birthday suit. It beats having to mess about finding the perfect pair of PJ’s that’s for sure. Less washing too…

He’s just gotten comfortable under the sheets, snuggling into his pillow when the door comes flying open.

“Hey! Watch the fucking door!” He shouts spotting Niall standing there, arms folded and expression grim.

“Hmm so this where you dwell…” The blonde comments taking in the set-up of his room.

“Yeah well now you’ve seen it, get out” Harry barks back scowling at him from the bed.

“Not until you get out of your bed and put your clothes back on. You can’t just cancel the shoot, Steve has already arrange for some to come and pick you up to take you” Niall explains slowly to him, sending him a measured look.

“Why do you suddenly care anyway?” Harry says back the words getting half muffled into the pillow.

“I don’t, but Steve told me to have you ready for it and make sure that you actually went. So if you don’t move I’ll be forced you drag you out myself…”

“…You wouldn’t dare” Harry goads, lifting his head from the pillow to sending him a challenging look.

Niall on his part simply stares back at him, lifting his chin in affront.

“Oh really? Are you challenging me Styles?”

“You wouldn’t, it’s a fact” he says back smirking, this was about to get interesting it seemed.

Niall takes a step further into his room, flicking the door closed behind him carelessly.

“You _really_ shouldn’t goad people into doing thing, you might just regret it” the blonde then warns him, a mean smile gracing his face as he saunters over.

Beneath the sheets Harry tenses his body, making sure to be ready for any surprise attacks that Niall may have in mind. He coils up into a ball, drawing his legs to his chest in an attempt to shield himself – it’s a sad effort, but an effort none the less in his opinion.

Out of nowhere Niall then launches himself onto the bed grabbing a hold of the sheets trying to keep himself on the soft surface. Harry shifts from side to side in a vain struggle to dislodge the Irish boy and knock him to the floor. He brings his arms from under his sheets and grabs a hold of the other boy’s hands that are trying to pull the sheets off him, effectively trapping them above him.

Niall laughs and drops all of his weight so as Harry is literally the only force holding him up on his knees.

“Ah you dirty little cheat!” Harry shouts realising that if he doesn’t keep a hold of Niall’s arms then the blonde will come crashing down on him, effectively squashing him..

In response Niall only laughs more, but does then try to repositions himself. He brings a thigh either side of Harry’s hips so as he’s straddling the curly headed boy. The new positions means that Niall’s now supporting himself instead of Harry taking all the weight, but it also means that in a way Niall’s won since he holds the higher ground.

So Harry falls back feeling a little strained and tired from the week’s events. He drops back into the pillows behind him, letting the soft material cradle him.

Niall also seems just as tired and flops down on him making Harry let out a shocked grunt as the blonde rests his head on his chest.

“What are you doing?” he asks frowning down at him.

“Just let it be for a while yeah?” Niall says sighing. “I won’t nag you about the photo shoot, just let me have a second okay?”

It’s because he’s tired Harry tells himself. It’s because he doesn’t want to move and the effort of having to shove Niall off him right now is too much.

But as he’s starts to card a hand through Niall’s hair, he can’t but help but wonder if that’s as true as he keeps telling himself.

 

* * *

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah so there we go, another chapter is complete! I really wanted to get this chapter up before the weekend, and it looks like I managed it! As always let me know what you thought (and what you think might happen). It's always interesting to know peoples thoughts.


	6. Photo Flash

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “You’re really not making this easy for me you know” Harry whispers to him catching the smirk on Niall’s face.
> 
> “Now why ever would I do that my dear boyfriend?” Niall says his smirk growing wider and more mischievous than ever.
> 
> “Well I don’t know… Maybe because you’re meant to be my boyfriend?” Harry answers with a slightly sarcastic tone.
> 
> “Where’s the fun in that?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- Prompt by the amazing talkaboutnarry (go and tell her how amazing she is at http://talkaboutnarry.tumblr.com/)

* * *

Turns out he still has to go to the photo shoot. He’d fallen asleep on the bed in the end with Niall still lying on his chest breathing in soft breathes. Apparently they’d looked quite the picture according to Steve, who had rudely barged into his apartment with his spare key and awoken him.

Cancelling the damn thing was out of the question due to the photographer only being in the area till tomorrow. The guy was supposedly fully booked doing another shoot for some high profile magazine that Harry had never heard of; and so that only left today for an available slot.

So he was stuck traveling in the most uncomfortable car he’d ever ridden in on his way to meet the man in question. Niall had opted to come along as well, going on about being interested in seeing how it was done and commenting on the fact he “didn’t have anything better to do” today.

Currently he was sat next to him texting his friend Liam, who according to Niall didn’t like Harry one bit. Of course he was basing this on one of their previous “spats” where Niall had informed him that none of his friends thought very highly of him. Not that Harry particularly cared for what Niall’s stuck up friends thought of him.

Even so it was a bit rude considering that these friends of Niall had never met him in their lives – God only knows what Niall had told them about him to give them such an impression.

Still, Harry had dealt with being the object of rude commentary before, and while he hadn’t dealt with it very well in the past, he now knew had to handle it with an expert approach.

The car suddenly comes to a stop outside a grand looking building that towers high above the city. He gives a sour look to it, imagining all the illnesses he could potentially fake to get out of this stupidity.

The driver comes round to open the door and his security flanks him either side, as a precaution. He can already sense Niall moving into position next to him, curling into his side and linking his fingers into his. It’s the perfect picture of a perfect couple with their matching smiles – oh how proud Steve would be.

A couple of girls who are walking by suddenly stop a little way down the road from them. It’s obvious that they’ve seen them, and they immediately start rushing towards them despite the fact that the security guys around Niall and him have drawn closer.

Harry moves away a little from the group to go and speak to them since their clearly going to want him to sign something for them. But before he can move past Preston, the man shoots a hand out to grab him and pull him back.

“We haven’t got time Harry” he tells him drawing him back into the group again.

“Yeah but there’s only two of them. I won’t be that long…”

“Sorry Harry, Steve’s orders” he’s told in return and is then moved back into the small huddle of people that serve as his protection.

Niall finds his hand again and wraps it around his giving a slight squeeze that he guesses is meant to be reassuring. But all it does is remind him that he’s never going to be free to make his own decisions in this industry. He’s always going to be tied down to some sort of agreement.

Upon reaching the room where the photo shoot for the new album is going to take place, Harry immediately notices the contrast between the dated furniture of the room and modern high tech equipment. The cameras and white canvas stand out terribly among the old aged dark chairs and tables. They’ve moved some of the stuff around in the room to make space for the gear that’s been brought with them so as they can get about easier. So now everything is pushed against the walls, and Harry just hopes that nothings been damaged.

As he’s coxed further into the room, Niall sticking close to his side, he sees a tall man dressed in high end label clothing and an array of unusual accessories standing over one of the cameras muttering to himself.

Paul rudely clears his throat when he doesn’t turn to face them straight away and Harry wishes he hadn’t the second that the man turns.

He’s wearing a dark pair of sunglasses, despite being indoors and he _does not_ want to know what he’s wearing over his crotch.

All in all he’s a little strange looking and it’s as though he’s trying to go for the rock and roll look.

“Ah! You must be ‘Arry!” the man cries outstretching his hand towards him smiling broadly.

Harry gives him a tight smile, offering his own hand to shake. He doesn’t miss the fact that he had pronounced his name wrong, somehow completely missing the “H” at the start.

“My name is Girolle, I will be in charge of taking zee photos today. My assistant Rochelle is about somewhere, but I will introduce you later. For now if you could simply get changed an-”

Girolle comes to a stop and Harry watches as they man’s eyes sweep over him and towards the side of the room where he knows he left Niall standing only moments ago. Before he can even intervene Girolle lets his hands fall from where he had placed them on his shoulders and goes wandering over to the side of the room in a rush.

He turns quickly to see him come up in front of Niall slamming his hands down on his shoulders and giving him a light shake.

“What tis your name?” he asks in a rush, as though it’s something of great importance.

Niall for his part looks completely bewildered and blinks owlishly at the man towering above him for a moment. 

“Urm… I’m Niall?” he replies, stating his name as a question rather than an answer.

“Nail?” Girolle repeats back.

“Niall” the blonde says again a little louder.

“Nail?”

“ _Ni-el_ ”

“Nail?”

Niall sighs and just nods, clearly not impressed, but unwilling to stand and argue over the pronunciation of his name. Instead he lets Girolle carry on with whatever it was he wanted.

“Wonderful! I will be needing you later to take some extra shots of you and ‘Arry. So if you coul-”

“Wait! What?!” Harry finds himself yelling over Girolle’s ramblings.

As far as he had been aware this was just about him getting some shots taken for the new album and a couple of extra shots for some magazines and calendars. No one had said _anything_ about having Niall involved with this!

“Ah, yes, Steve asked zat I take some of you and Nail. You were not told no?” Girolle says casually turning to look at him.

“No!” Harry shouts back, staring at him aghast.

“Well, zat is what I ‘ave been asked to do, so I will do zat yes? Anyway, go! Go and get ready. I will set up zee camera. Rochelle! Rochelle! Where are you?!”

It seems like the conversation is over and so Harry is left to stand there with a hand on his temple sighing.

Lou and his stylish Caroline are quick to find him pulling all sorts of outfits out for him while Lou begins tackling his hair. Caroline picks out a pair of black skinny jeans compiling it with a simple white t-shirt and black suit jacket. It’s a good choice in Harry’s eyes and he only wishes that they would let him tear a few holes into the jeans for a more “edgy” look. But a Caroline special death glare is the response to his suggestion and in the interest of staying alive he decides to leave it.

“Hey Lou? Did you manage to pick up any of tho-”

“Yes Harry, I got a couple of packs” Lou sighs handing him a box.

He grins taking off the lid to find a selection of different strips of fabric inside. After Niall had wrapped his hair up into a bandana the other day Harry had been keen to make a habit of wearing them.

It had been great not having to flick back his hair every couple of minutes when the curls fell into his face and so he’d very kindly asked Lou if she could pick some up for him last time they’d spoken.

“Will you put it in for me?” he asks her grinning trying to add a little Styles charm to sweeten her up.

It must have worked a charm because a couple of seconds later she’s wrapping a red and black checked piece of material around his head with a sigh.

“Now don’t fiddle with it too much okay? I saw you tugging at the other one last time”

Harry just grins once she’s finished standing up to look at is reflection with a cheery look. He likes these bandanas _way_ too much.

“Hey, are you listening to me Harry?” Lou asks him.

With a smile he turns to her giving a wave and runs off again in Girolle’s direction.

“Harry!” he hears the two woman shout behind him as he goes.

Walking back into the room he finds Girolle waiting for him true to his word setting the camera up in the middle of the room. His head tilts in his direction when he enters and he offers a quick smile.

“Ah, ‘Arry you are ready yes?” he asks.

“Urm yeah”

“Good! Into position over ‘ere!” he shouts tugging Harry over to the white screen in the middle of the room. “Stand here, straight up and I want to pretend you are standing surveying zee entire world. It is at your feet and you are zee master” he tells him pushing him into position before walking back to the camera peering through the lens.

Harry shuffles a little in place feeling awkward as Girolle directs him. Not much of what he’s saying is making any shred of sense to him. It also doesn’t help that he’s so loud and every time he speaks to him it’s like he’s yelling down a megaphone.

“Good! Zat is good! Wait, no! You’ve lost zee pose. Back straight! Be a mountain! You are zee mountain! Be zee mountain! Good! Tall! _Strong!_ No, no, no, no, no!”

Girolle rushes forward again to him and shoves him around a little more, pushing his back into and his shoulders out.

“Now I want to see zee face! Show me zee face!”

Harry stare at him a little oddly and turns his head to the side facing away from him and catching Niall’s eyes. The other boy is holding a hand to his mouth and trying not to burst into laughter. His shoulders are shaking slightly from the supressed laughter he’s holding in and Harry _really_ wants to smack him round the head right now for being so amused by his situation. The only thing stopping him is the face that he knows that Niall is going to have to suffer later as well when it’s his turn.

“Good! Strong features dis is what we need! Now make a face for me! Yes, zat is it! Wonderful! Now, go! Yes. Yes. Yes!”

Harry really wishes that Girolle wasn’t so intense…

Several more shots later Girolle calls Harry’s shoot to an end holding up a hand and shouting to his weary looking staff. He snaps his fingers to a man in particular who Harry now knows to be Rochelle.

“Get Nail ready for the next shoot” he tells him waving his hand to where Niall is standing with Paul and Preston in the middle of a hushed conversation.

Harry has to hide his smirk as he watches Rochelle go over to the group and tug Niall in the direction of Lou and Caroline who are waiting for him with matching grins.

Harry goes to sit down and take a break himself, just catch a moment where he can think alone. But no sooner is off to find a quiet place to sit and Girolle pounces on him tugging him back.

“’Arry, into position please!” he yells from the camera.

“But I thought that we were done with my shots?” he asks confused.

Niall probably won’t be back for a while. He’s got to go through hair, make-up and wardrobe yet.

“Into position!” Girolle yells again and that’s enough to send Harry running back in front of the white screen.

It turns out that Girolle had yet to take the photos that were going to be distributed to various magazines. So again he’s pushed and pulled into a number of uncomfortable positions that to him don’t look all that appealing. But Girolle’s the photographer here and so he doesn’t argue with the man and lets him do his job.

“Cut! Cut! Cut!” Girolle then yells waving his arm high into the air staring at him through the dark lenses of his thick rimmed sunglasses.

“’Arry! What are you doing?! Dis is art, not some school girl bedroom selfie session!”

In a fit of tiredness and general grumpiness at the situation he’s about to turn and shout at Girolle that he’s done with the shoot.

But then out of the corner he sees Niall walk into the room.

He’s the picture of perfectness standing there in skin tight jeans and a grey t-shirt matched with a black cardigan which Niall’s pulled the arms up slightly on to reveal the lean muscles in his fore arms oh so seamlessly. He smirks as he sees that he’s wearing the same white pair of converse he came in – his favourite pair of shoes.

It’s annoying to even think that he might in some way be attracted to Niall. He’s not sure if it’s just a brief obsession that he’s feeling. Something that might just fade in a month or so. But Niall’s been living with him now for well over a month – so shouldn’t the obsession have worn off by now?

Either way he’s stuck with it for now he tells himself as Girolle and Rochelle push them close to each other in the middle of the white screen making sure they’re bodies are pressed up tight against each other.

They try to go for some pretty common couple shots to start with, forcing them to stand close to each other telling Niall to lean up and press himself close to Harry and gaze into each other eyes. It’s sort of awkward considering that the rest of his team is watching this spectacle, and Harry can’t quite make himself relax.

Girolle must notice.

“Cut! Cut! Cut!” he shouts after a moment of trying to get Harry to stand correctly. “’Arry! What is zee problem ‘ere? You are not comfortable? Why is zere an issue?”

Niall drops away from him with a huff and draws a good distance between them folding his arms and staring at Harry with an unimpressed look.

Ten short steps and Girolle is in front of him looking down with what he assume is a look of concern.

“You are in love with zis boy no? You want to be together with him yes?” Girolle asks placing a hand on his hip and throwing an arm out in Niall’s direction every time he mentions him.

Harry shrugs his shoulders and gives a weak look to Niall, begging him with his eyes to help him out here. But Niall only raises an eyebrow in response watching with him a great deal of scrutiny.

“I, urm… I guess. Yeah…” he finally answers coming to the conclusion that Niall isn’t going to be helping him any time soon by the looks of it.

“Well what is zee problem? Show your love! Be the seed of you love! Show the intensity of the fire burning within your heart! Go again! Into position!”

Harry rolls his shoulders back and huffs a breath standing close in to Niall again. Clearly Girolle isn’t happy with the pose though, and his hands are stretching forward to grab at his shoulders again shuffling them closer. He then grabs a hold of Harry’s hands and places them neatly at Niall’s trim waist.

“Whoa, wait!” Harry yells snatching his hands away from Niall’s body sharply and turning to stare in shock at Girolle. “What are you doing?”

“You need to be closer! I want to feel zee passion, zee romance! Now just place your ‘ands zere and stand like zis… Zere! Perfect!”

Harry feels his hands start to clam up slightly. They become a little sweaty and he hopes to God that Niall doesn’t notice or pass a comment on it. But to his relief the other boy simply stands in his arms staring back at him. He raises an eyebrow at Harry when the other boy doesn’t look at him and smirks leaning forward to tilt his head so as Harry has in other choice but to look at him.

“You’re really not making this easy for me you know” Harry whispers to him catching the smirk on Niall’s face.

“Now why ever would I do that my dear boyfriend?” Niall says his smirk growing wider and more mischievous than ever.

“Well I don’t know… Maybe _because_ you’re meant to be my boyfriend?” Harry answers with a slightly sarcastic tone.

“Where’s the fun in that?”

Harry can only glare back him watching the glee dance through Niall’s annoyingly bright eyes that he now can’t stop staring into. Again it seems like Niall’s caught him off guard and pulled him right back into the festering pit now known to be Harry’s uncertain feelings. He keeps managing to do this and Harry always misses the transition between Niall just being his incredibly frustrating self and Niall suddenly being mind blowingly _hot_.

“Zats it! Zere it is! Again! Again!”

His body jerks abruptly realising he’s being doing just as Girolle had wanted. He’d been staring directly into Niall’s eyes with an intense expression that had probably looked a little lovingly to observers.

“No! No! No! ‘Arry! What are you doing! Stop loosing focus!”

They end up taking another round of photos, but this time Niall and he are sitting on the floor facing each other, legs entangled with each other.

“Now ‘Arry reach to Nail and take ‘is ‘ands and place them between you both yes?”

Harry does as he’s told for fear that Girolle will just start shouting at him again. He’s beginning to get a headache from the man and his head is throbbing slightly. So for the greater good he reaches across to Niall and carefully tugs his hands into his resting them on his knees.

“Now I want you to look at each other, and I want you to feel zee burning love between you, channel zee energy. _Feel_ your emotions flow! Good Nail! ‘Arry! Are you feeling zee energy!?”

Harry gives a meek look to Girolle and stares blankly back at Niall who is grinning at him trying to stifle his laughter. He watches the corners of his mouth tug and his eyes shine brightly back at him. It must be infectious before the in his next breath Harry finds himself laughing too beaming at Niall at Girolle starts to shout somewhere off to the side. He’s trying to suppress his laughter though at the bizarre situation and ends up smiling shyly at Niall leaning his head forward until it’s pressed against Niall’s and they’re left grinning cheekily at each other.

“This is stupid” Niall tells him in a whisper.

Harry can only nod back trying to keep his voice low so as Girolle, or anyone else for that matter, doesn’t overhear them.

“I told you it would be. That’s why I didn’t want to come” he explains smirking as Niall rolls his eyes.

“Yeah, but at least you’re getting it out of the way now rather than dreading it later”

“But I’ll still have to suffer it all the same” Harry murmurs pouting slightly before grinning again when Niall gives him an exasperated look.

“Yes, yes, yes! Zis is brilliant! Zis is what we need!” Girolle yells over their conversation the camera flashing continuously and Harry pulls back quickly realising how close he is to Niall.

The rest if the room is staring at the two of them sat there hunched in close to each other and Harry feels his cheeks flare crimson. Paul’s standing over to the side watching him with a raised eyebrow probably wondering what’s going off with him right now. As far as he’s concerned he’s heterosexual and is adamant on it. So this is bound to be confusing and Harry isn’t aiming to put doubt in the minds of the people who are aware of his preferences.

“’Arry! What are you doing? We’re not done yet!” Girolle shouts at him drawing up from the camera to stare at him.

Harry’s about to say something snide in return but Girolle holds a hand up suddenly making some sort of halting noise which cuts Harry off.

“No you’re right ‘Arry, we need to press on and get the rest of zee shots done. Right! Next position please! On your feet”

“But we ju-”

“Up please!”

With a frustrated sigh Harry pulls up to his feet offering Niall a hand too to pull him up. Once more Girolle is quick to tug them about placing them back to back before standing in front of them assessing and the pose with a critical look.

“Hmm, zis will do” he says with a nod and rushes back to his camera to snap the pictures.

Before he does Niall slips his hand into Harry’s and intertwines their fingers together. It takes Harry by surprise and he jerks his head to his as best he can from their position. Niall gives him a slight smile and from over his shoulder Harry can’t help but return it as Girolle continues shouting praise at them from the camera.

Harry knows it’s stupid, he knows it’s far-fetched and something straight from some soppy teenage novel. But he stands there back to back with Niall both of them grinning at the other, heads tilted and fingers laced, it just feels like they’re the only people in the room. As if Niall’s the only person who matters right now, and who knows maybe right now he really is the only one who does.

-X-

After saying a horrendously long goodbye to Girolle and his assistance, one that Harry didn’t want to have a repeat of any time soon, they leave and make their way back to the car. Of course in one last dramatic movement Girolle hands him a parcel wrapped in brown paper, telling him to not open it until he returns home.

Naturally Harry being Harry stares mutely at it and hands it to Paul for safe keeping while throwing a polite thank you over his shoulder to the eccentric man.

Niall’s also quick to move, yanking the borrowed clothes off his body and flinging them into the pile next to Harry’s. He zeroes in on Harry’s side and moves into position next to him so fast that Harry worries momentarily that his body’s going to suffer some sort of whip lash. Although when he simply gives him a meek look he thinks better of it and bites back a laugh leaving him with a stretched smile instead.

The car ride back is much the same, the two of them sharing fleeting looks before turning away. It’s not entirely awkward, but it’s not something that Harry’s particularly enjoying either. In all honestly he can’t wait to just get home and find something productive to do. It hasn’t escaped his attention that he’s not had much time to himself recently and this is something he’s eager to change.

“Hey”

The sudden break in silence jolts Harry from his formulating plans and he turns to look at Niall who’s leaning against the blacked out window of the car half turned towards him.

“You okay?” he asks.

Niall nods in return and shuffles a little to face him better slouching into his seat in a more comfortable position.

“Yeah, urm, one of my friends has asked to meet up so…”

“You’re not going to be coming back to the apartment?” Harry finishes realising what Niall’s implying.

“You know me too well already” Niall replies chuckling to himself. “But yeah, was thinking maybe your driver could just drop me off where I need to be”

“Yeah that’s fine” He replies dryly wondering why he’s suddenly not all that pleased.

It shouldn’t matter to him if Niall does or doesn’t come back with him. He’s not under obligation to follow him back, and yet there’s a pooling heat suddenly gripping him.

Although Niall being away from the apartment will give him a chance to sort himself out and give himself a little shake. He needs to stop looking so deeply into his growing relationship with Niall. It’s just a friendship he keeps telling himself, and yet his brain keeps translating the words _friendship_ and _romantic interest_ wrong and blurring the lines between.

“So you’re okay with this?” Niall says to him from across the car.

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?” Harry snaps back, and only afterwards realises that sounded a little too harsh. “Sorry…” he mumbles staring at the floor trying to not catch Niall’s eye.

“You see this is wh-”

“So who are you going out with?” Harry asks quickly cutting Niall off knowing he had been about to reprimand him.

Niall gives him a sharp look as though he’s going to carry on with his scolding, but then he frowns and flops back into his seat bringing his phone back up to text.

“Well I guess it’s probably going to end up with four of us to be honest. Louis can never resist bringing Liam along with him and if Liam texts Zayn then I guess he’ll come too if he doesn’t have anything better to do…”

“Wait are these the guys who hate me?” Harry then says lifting his head from where he had rested it on his fist.

“Urm, I don’t think Louis likes you, maybe Liam too… I don’t think Zayn’s too fussed - he’s really chilled out when it comes to life, takes a lot to rile him”

Harry wants to be annoyed with how “chilled out” Niall’s being right now. He’s oh so casually talking about how his friends dislike him – in Harry’s opinion that isn’t something to be cool about.

If anything Niall should be introducing him to these friends so he can make a good impression and not make them hate him. Also he could find out what Niall’s being saying about him to them – not that he gives a damn about what Niall’s been saying, at all. He really doesn’t.

All the same he’s dropped off at home before waving the car off that carrying Niall away to his little group meet up.

So he decides to spend his afternoon sulking instead.

He doesn’t mean to, but by the time he’s inside the apartment looking around the room he feels an annoying urge to cuddle up on the sofa and feel a little sorry for himself. He’s grabbed himself the remote off the glass coffee table and turned the TV on to find a soppy romance movie playing and turns the volume down low.

He can’t quite pick up on what the plot is and to him it just looks like the guys running in cycles chasing after another guy who’s completely unattainable and married to another man. It’s annoying really, because all they seem to do is fight and Harry feels a nagging sense of déjà vu towards the plot.

God he needs to stop relating everything back to Niall.

But now he feels alone, the place is too quiet without Niall here nagging him and reminding him of all the things he’s got lined up in his schedule.

He has no idea why he calls Nick. Honestly he just picks up his mobile and calls him. There’s no intention to invite him round, no reason to. But all the same he asks the question and Nick gives him an unnecessary breakdown of everything he’s got to do for the day followed by his actual answer of “oh well, sod it, I don’t want to do any work today” before putting the phone down.

He assumes that Nicks going to come round from such a vague rant and lies on the sofa waiting for him staring blankly at the screen.

He must have fallen asleep at some point because the next thing he knows his phone is buzzing against his cheek and the movie on the TV is showing the end credits to the movie he had been partially watching.

Against his better judgement he picks up the call offering a groggy hello down the receiver.

“Seriously?! You invite me over and then fall asleep! What kind of host are you?!” Nick shouts at him sounding as high strung as always.

“Hmm, I’m coming, I’m coming. I didn’t mean to fall asleep, some stupid soppy movie was playing and it bored me into sleeping”

“You’re only saying that because Niall and you aren’t banging” Nick snaps back sourly.

“You know I don’t _have_ to let you in” Harry taunts back holding his hand on the door and waiting for Nick’s response.

“And I don’t _have_ to keep your lonely ass company”

“Fine”

“Exactly Styles”

He yanks the door open to reveal a cold looking Nick bundled up in a heavy looking winter coat clutching his phone in his hand. He doesn’t look at all pleased to be there and quickly shoves past him into the warmth of Harry’s home.

“Come on Styles, let me in you tosser”

“Wow and you call me a bad host, you’re a terrible guest” Harry comments as he catches Nicks jacket which he’d been thrown over.

“Yeah well I came as quickly as I could, you sounded so desperate without your pretty little lodger. Where did you say he’d gone?”

“Okay well first, his name is _Niall_. Second I _didn’t_ say where he’d gone, and third I don’t _do_ desperate”

“Well check you out with your well thought out answer. I was only asking Mr Styles. No need to have a bitch fit on me – God you sound like Ed”

Seemingly having said he piece Nick sprawls himself across the sofa flinging his legs up onto the couch and gets comfy. He’s kicked his shoes off and left them by the coffee table for later and turned the volume down a little more.

“So on a more serious note… You and Niall huh?” Nick sees and Harry watches as he eyes turn up to meet his and for once he really does look as serious as he sounds.

It leaves Harry feeling as thing he has no choice but to answer just as seriously. Deflating he drops into the armchair opposite Nick and sighs.

“I don’t know…  Maybe?”

“Maybe?” Nick echoes solemnly tilting his head to face him.

“He’s just so infuriating at times and yet I can’t stop thinking about him. He drives me mad with the things he says and does. But at the same time I…”

“You want to be with him” Nick finishes watching as Harry cradles his head in his hands in frustration.

“Yeah…” the curly haired boy says giving a sad sigh. “I just don’t know whether it’s friendship or something more… But it can’t be right – ‘cause I don’t like guys”

“But you like Niall” Nick points out with a sly look. “There’s no denying that~” he adds.

Harry gives him a nasty look and scowls down at his hands remember the shoot from earlier and the sudden sinking feeling when he realised that Niall wouldn’t be coming back to the apartment.

“Yeah I like him – but that doesn’t have to be love. Guys can just be friends sometimes, it doesn’t always have to be about romance”

“Even so Harry you can’t deny your feelings. It not fair on both Niall and yourself”

A silence falls over them for a moment and Nick watches as Harry twiddled his fingers in thought.

“What… What was it like when you met Ed?” Harry asks in a small voice, avoiding Nick’s gaze stubbornly.

“You mean how did I feel?” Nick probes sparing him a casual glance.

“Yeah. I mean like did you know he was for you or..?”

Nick hums to himself thinking back before smiling broadly at the memories that flow to his mind. He leans his head back a little giving a soft smile to the ceiling.

“I guess so in a way. We kind of just clicked. He came into the studio one day for a radio interview and we talked beforehand for a while. Of course I was a massive fan of his music and could name all the tracks… It was funny really just how well we got on” he muses swinging his foot from side to side thoughtfully.

“So you just… Knew? Even thought you had never met before?”

“Well no, not straight away I guess. I mean we got on, had loads in common. But I didn’t know properly until we spent more time together – love works in strange ways like that you know” Nicks tells him smiling when he sees Harry’s face drop a little again.

Clearly he hadn’t been wanting that answer and it looked like he was questioning himself again. It wasn’t that Nick was meaning to make him question himself. In all honestly he was all for Harry standing up for himself and standing his ground about being heterosexual – but at the same time he didn’t want Harry to deny his feelings just because he was being stubborn. He just wished Harry would at least give this thing with Niall a go, he wouldn’t be surprised if Harry ended up surprising himself and actually really liking Niall.

“Shall we watch a movie” Harry then said out of nowhere, getting to his feet and moving over to the large wooden cabinet on the other side of the room where he kept all of his DVD’s stashed away. 

“Well it’s your house Styles. You do what you want” Nick murmurs closing his eyes and deciding to get some rest seeing as he’d been working most of the week.

No doubt Harry would wake him up if he wanted another heart to heart anytime soon. Plus there was the fact that he had no doubt put Grease into the player again to watch for the millionth time to date – God knows he loves the curly haired boy, but if he heard “ _Grease Lightning_ ” one more time he was going to choke a bitch.

So he slides back down the sofa and places his head against one of the many cushions lining the sofa and closes his eyes while the “soothing” sounds of “ _Summer Nights_ ” played in the background.

He has no idea what time it is when he wakes up. The rooms’ dark and he can hear the undertones of “ _Grease Lightning_ ” playing in the background on loop, a turn of his head to look at the screen shows him the title screen of the DVD and he scowls at it. He throws the pillow at the TV and yells for Harry to turn the bloody thing off – but it’s at that point he hears a harsh whisper coming from behind him.

“Will you _please_ keep it down? Nick’s sleeping on the sofa!” – and yeah, that’s Harry, no doubt about it.

“What?” comes a slurred reply, and the slight Irish twang doesn’t go unnoticed by Nick. “So right, le’ me get dis straight right… _You_ can ‘ave people over and shit, but _I_ can’t go out wit’ my friends an’ that? What kinda messed up shit is this?” the person continues, and at this point Nick is 95% sure that it’s Niall talking…

Or slurring.

He doesn’t dare move and so gets comfy again, closing his eyes in case they decide to wander closer to check up on him.

“You know that’s not what I said Niall! Jesus, why don’t you ever list- Wait, why am I even bothering? You’re obviously drunk, go to bed!” Harry hisses at the drunken boy.

“Aw Haz” Niall whines, giggling a little. “Aren’t you going to come with me hmm? I could keep you warm in more ways than one~!” Niall’s sings suggestively laughing towards the end, and Nick hears a brief scuffle between them followed by the sound of Harry protesting and banging about.

“No! Get off Niall! Nick’s in the other room! Go to bed!”

“Harry~! Don’t be such a prude, c’mon!”

More banging resounds and when he hears the light steps trailing up the stairs he can only assume that they’ve gone to bed for the night – although he stays put for another ten minutes just to be safe.

It’s only when he doesn’t hear anymore ruckus from the landing that he makes his move spinning his legs off the side of the sofa and planting them firmly on the floor pushing up. He takes a moment to stretch and release the tension in his shoulders accidently cracking a few bones in his back.

“Ah, much better” he murmurs scooping up his shoes and tugging them on.

He’s about to fetch his coat and leave when a soft padding sound reaches his ears and he turns to find Harry making his way back down the stairs frowning.

“Yo!” he calls with a wave catching the brooding boy’s attention. “I’m going to head off back home, you good?”

Harry gives him a slow nod as though he’s still trying to wrap his head around something. It’s obvious he’s not as fine as he had just tried to make out he was.

“…Okay, what happened?” Nick sighs shrugging on his winter coat and shoving his hands deep into the fluffy pockets.

“He just kissed me” Harry mutters, his puzzled look staying firmly on his face. “Like out of nowhere as he was saying goodnight. He just leaned up and kissed me – like it was nothing, as though it was the norm for us”

“…And this is troubling you why?” Nick probes giving him an odd look.

“Because it’s not normal for us! We don’t kiss before we go to bed” Harry says back to him with a deadpan look.

“Harry, I’m sorry to say, but you’re in way over your head here. You like him – it’s as simple as that, you wouldn’t be so bothered about the kiss if you weren’t” Nick tells him with a look that tells Harry not to protest.

The curly haired boy won’t meet his eyes, instead he looks at the ground beneath him thinking hard on things. Nick only laughs walking over to the door and pulling the handle down to open it, stepping one foot into the hall.

“Well don’t think too much on it. Wouldn’t want you hurting yourself Styles, see you soon you saucy thing~”

And with that he’s gone, leaving Harry standing in his apartment with a sour brooding look on his face.

Harry takes a moment to calm the thoughts in his mind lifting a finger to the corner of his mouth where Niall had planted that slightly sloppy alcoholic kiss earlier. The Irish boy had been totally gone, lost to the depths of a deep alcoholic haze.

Harry had practically had no other choice but to carry him up the stairs while Niall has prattled on about how they should get married and be the perfect picture couple that the world thought they were. Of course he has spoken the words in broken English pronouncing half of the muddled speech completely wrong and fumbling over the rest in a groggy confused state. It didn’t help that he had started to throw in a mix of Irish and Spanish words into the equation and it had taken Harry a moment to realise that he wasn’t just making words up.

But after actually _getting_ into Niall’s bed with him, the blonde had finally given up and agreed to sleep. It was a battle Harry had been glad to win.

However there was no chance that he would be returning to Niall’s room, not with his head being the war torn battle field it was right now. There was too many mixed emotions towards the other boy for him to deal with – what with Nick now saying he was too far gone too.

Instead he slouched back to his room and pressed the door closed behind him as quietly as he could; less he wake Niall up.

As he moved over to his bed his eyes caught the brown envelop that Girolle had given him earlier that day, and out of curiosity he picks it up tearing back the lip.

Inside is three separate cards of glossy paper and upon closer inspection Harry realises that they’re prints from the shoot.

There’s the one where they had been sat on the floor, legs entangled with each other’s smirking at one and another mischievously. The seconds is the one where Harry had had his hands at Niall’s waist head tilted slightly as he looked at Niall standing in front of him. Their expression are much more tame and almost, dare he say, serious and without the usual scathing frowns.

But it’s the last photo that holds his attention, and in his opinion outshines the rest. They’re both back to back heads turned to look at the other over they’re shoulders. Niall’s eyes are shining brightly as he grins at him and Harry’s got a matching smile. It’s more of candid really, a shot that’s been snapped in the heat of the moment.

Even so Harry can’t tear his eyes away from it, not for a second. All he can do is continue staring at the proof in front of him for something that the people around him have been telling him for weeks.

And it dawns on him right there as he stands in the middle of his room at stupid o’clock at night – there’s a slight chance, a tiny possibility, that he might be a little bit gone for Niall Horan.

* * *

 

 

 


	7. Eau de Counter Top

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “That’s great and all Niall. But I’m still fairly hard myself and you’re stood pilfering through my biscuit supply” Harry tells him thoroughly unimpressed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- Prompt by the amazing talkaboutnarry (go and tell her how amazing she is at http://talkaboutnarry.tumblr.com/)

 

* * *

 

 

There’s a bright light hitting his eyes when he finally opens them, a clear sign that the suns up and awake. He wonders whether he should get up too and promptly decides that no, no he shouldn’t.

He’s really tired still, despite the fact that he had been asleep only a moment ago. Of course he’s fully aware that he had been drinking last night. Louis had decided it would be a good idea to take Liam, Zayn and him down to the nearest club and get so drunk they couldn’t stand straight. At first he’d been all for it but a part of his brain, the more intelligent part, had reminded him that he was Harry Styles’ boyfriend and that he shouldn’t be caught drinking with other attractive males.

But the more daring, trilling seeking part of his brain said fuck it.

12 shots, 2 badly put together drinking games and a round of drunk dancing later they’re so uncoordinated that Niall ends up spending more time on the floor then actually standing upright. His friends find the whole thing _very_ amusing, but at the same time they’re not the type of assholes who would leave him to struggle on his own.

Between the four of them they manage to make it out of the club in one piece and hail down a cab. It takes him 4 tries to successfully tell the driver Harry’s address and yet he still giggles between each word, so God knows how they had got back.

Harry doesn’t disappoint when he arrives on the doorstep at God knows what time. After fumbling with the key to the apartment for about 5 minutes twisting and pushing the metal against the lock. The door goes flying open when he shoves at it too hard and due to him resting his whole weight against it he almost ends up on the floor. At the time he’d found it incredibly funny and had stood leaning against the wall giggling to himself. However a very sober Harry who had found him standing there most certainly hadn’t.

He’d been quick to wrench him into the apartment and shut the door behind him to avoid others from seeing what he probably thought was Niall making a spectacle of himself. After shielding the rest of the world out he’d then proceeded to start hissing a load of abuse at him and going on about him having company over while making vague hand gestures of the sofa.

Apparently Harry now had a problem with him going out and having a good time, and supposedly these rules didn’t apply to himself.

Well that’s how Niall had interpreted the shit storm of a conversation anyway.

It all ended with Harry telling him to go to bed after he’d had enough of blowing up on Niall that is. But Niall hadn’t felt the least bit tired and instead he’d found himself really wanting a repeat of the night when he and Harry had explored the depths of that heterosexual club – not the whole night, just the part where they had gotten down and dirty in the back alleyway.

But again, Harry was being a prick and wouldn’t come to bed with him, sexually that is. He did make a compromise in the end though and instead tugged him up the stairs trying to keep him upright as Niall swayed about behind him and almost went toppling down twice.

Once they’d actually made it Niall’s temporary lodgings Harry had stood, arms crossed, by the wardrobe waiting patiently; for what Niall didn’t know. But it seemed Harry wasn’t going to get into the bed until Niall did whatever it was he was waiting for, and so he took the intuitive and pulled back the covers.

This did not go down well.

Niall had no idea why Harry had started yelling at him. One minuet he was telling Niall to go to bed and then when he did what he asked he was shouting at him to wait? The fuck did this guy want from him?

Turns out Harry had been standing there like an unimpressed mother because he’d been waiting for Niall to get changed into something more fitting to sleep in.

But Niall couldn’t even take his clothes _off_ never mind put a set of different ones _on_.

So Harry had had to play the dress maid role and help him out of his clothes in a very awkward manner.

However Niall’s feeling ever the sexual tease and his fuzzy alcohol clogged mind makes the decision that pissing Harry off would be a good thing to do.

So he starts to make inappropriate noises while Harry’s fighting with the buttons on his shirt. When this doesn’t have the desired effect he starts trying to nudge his hips against Harry’s.

Now _this_ gets a reaction.

Immediately Harry jerks away from him, hands falling away from his shirt. His eyes have bulged open wide and are trained on his waist as Niall makes a show and sways them slightly.

He’s shouting at him straight away, the first question on his lips asking what the hell he thinks he’s doing.

Niall doesn’t verbally answer he just giggles and flops back on the bed landing against a piles of soft pillows and blankets.

He hears a huff of breath come from Harry followed by a string of X-rated words and a complaint about Niall’s behaviour.

Niall lifts his hand and gestures for Harry to over, pairing it with a whiny demand. The curly boy isn’t happy about it, but he still complies making his way over with a sulky expression.

“Gonna be the death of me you are” he’d said and Niall can remember the way he’d stood there looking down at him his eyes slowly morphing into a fond look.

It was at that moment as Niall looked up at him that he brain came to some sort of warped conclusion that he should kiss him.

He leaned up, pushing back against the mattress and angled his body. His fingers reached out curling into the fabric at the front of the taller boy’s shirt for leverage. Harry still hadn’t caught on, which now Niall looks back on it was a good thing really. But even as Niall had cheerfully placed a short sloppy kiss at the corner of his mouth he still didn’t really react.

That’s when his head started to feel a little light and the spots blossoming in the corner of his eyes closed in causing him to see tunnel vision. So he gives in let’s his eyes close, cutting of his last image of Harry staring at him wide eyed.

“Night ‘Arry” he slurs letting his body fall limp against the bed sheets.

But that’s the last he remembers from the previous night. It was totally worth it seeing as he wasn’t suffering from any after effects, except maybe a slightly upset stomach and tiredness, but other than that he was all good to go.

Except he didn’t want to go. Instead he wanted a lazy day in bed surrounded by his pillows and the comfort of a blacked out bedroom.

Seems whoever is calling him has other ideas though.

His phones buzzing on the dresser table next to him, dancing about as the vibrations run through it.

He shoots a hand out and slams it down hard on the case dragging it along the surface before yanking it up to his face. His eyes zoom in on the caller ID groaning when he sees Louis’s name flashing across the screen accompanied by a photo of his ugly mug pulling a stupid face at him.

It’s far too early for this bullshit he thinks to himself.

But he knows all too well that Louis will only keep calling him if he doesn’t pick up and he can’t be arsed to play his games.

He swipes the screen to accept the call and his finger shoot for the volume button just in case. However he doesn’t make it in time and Louis voice comes wailing down the receiver.

“Niall!!”

He winces, flinging the phone into his lap and rubs his ear. The phone now abounded continues to sound Louis’ loud voice, and it’s as though he’s on speaker phone. In a fit of tiredness he hurls the phone up to his mouth and takes a breath.

“Will you cut that crap out! You’re far to pissing loud! Shut the fuck up!”

His out of character outburst is met by silence, and faintly he wonders whether Louis hung up on him. But one glance to the screen tells him otherwise.

“Wow… Well someone’s a little upset. Did Harry give you a good spanking for coming home drunk darling?” Louis coos cheekily voice full of spite.

Niall can feel his skin flushing as he sits on the bed scowling. Louis’ doing this on purpose with the intent of winding him up. He can’t let him know it’s working, least Louis get some form of sick satisfaction from it.

“Anyway, you’re failing love life aside. We’re coming over to pay a visit. It’s been long overdue and we need to see the state you’re livin-”

“What! Wait, wait, wait! Louis, you can’t just turn up here. It’s not my apartment and besides you don’t even know where it is” Niall cries sounding panicked.

“Well duh Niall. Of course we don’t know, that’s why you need to send me the address. I know roughly where we’re going. Just don’t know the number” Louis replies as always sounding confident in himself - it’s something Niall greatly envies at times.

“No way, Harry will kill me”

“Urg, why do you have to be so difficult Horan” the Yorkshire boy replies sounding miffed before he gives a dramatic sigh. “Well, we’ll do this the hard way then”

“What are you talking about?” Niall asked suspiciously, he _does not_ like the tone in his friend’s voice right now.

“Well if you won’t send me the exact address, we’ll simply turn up and cause a ruckus trying to find you. I already know the building from last when we dropped you off” Louis tells him sounding every bit the mischief maker his is. “See you soon darlin’!” He shouts down the phone before hanging up.

“Louis wa-”

But the boys already gone leaving Niall with a sense of dread. Harry won’t be pleased to know that they’re having uninvited guests over. But he’s pretty sure he’ll start foaming at the mouth if Louis starts causing trouble trying to find them. So while cursing the Yorkshire lad through six ways in hell he types out a text message to him with the address and apartment number.

The other boy texts back a few moments after his text had sent:

_Thanks for the address Nialler! Knew you’d see it my way! See you soon! :P_

He wishes he knew a way to get away with murder, but sadly he doesn’t and is stuck with inconsiderate friends instead.

-X-

Harry’s often wondered why he’s hated by the higher powers that be so much. He wonders what he did wrong in a past life to deserve such a cruel fate.

Not only has he been forced to date the most infuriating blonde haired boy, who has no sense of what personal space is.  But on top of that said boyfriend had decided at some point to befriend the most unruly bunch of humans he could find.

After Niall had broken the news that his so called friends (note: read as “uninvited house wreckers”) were to be coming over he’d promptly flipped the fuck out on Niall. In his eyes it certainly _wasn’t_ an overreaction seeing as the place was a mess and he wasn’t in right state if mind to entertain strangers.

But apparently Louis was a little overbearing and Niall wasn’t strong enough to say no. Yet he had no problem telling Harry where to shove it on several occasions in the past.

All the same the hoard of stupidity still descended on them and Harry caught Niall answering his phone in a hurried manner before rushing to the door.

The next thing he knew a flamboyant boy came strolling in like he owned the place, arm linked with a taller well-built boy with a serious look to his face. The smaller of the two made a show of looking about the place examining the layout from the floor to ceiling and doing a full turn taking the taller boy along for the ride.

“Well it’s certainly spacious” he then comments eyes finally landing on Harry sat on the sofa watching him with a miffed look.

Niall finally appears bringing with him a tanned boy with immaculately styled hair and a picture perfect complex that would put any model to shame.

“I take it you’re Harry”

Harry turns his head wordlessly back to the shorter boy who had been sussing his home out only moments before and is now looking at him with a scrutinising expression.

“Yeah” Harry answers nonchalantly not wanting show how much he currently wants them to leave.

“Hmph, I’m Louis” the chestnut haired boy says leaving the taller boys side to offer Harry a handshake which Harry begrudgingly takes.

The taller of the two boys then comes over to him as Louis moves out the way and offers his hand as well with a nod.

“Liam” he offers with a smile, and Harry starts to think that Liam’s not so bad.

But then the grip on his hand increases tenfold and he immediately takes it back while wincing. Liam simply continues to smile as though nothing’s wrong.

“And this is Zayn” he hears Niall say from over by the kitchen counter.

When he glances over he sees Zayn give him a tight smile as he stands next to Niall watching the blonde carefully as he pours water into the kettle. Apparently this is an incredible event as Louis goes rushing over to where Niall is setting out cups on the counter.

“Now this, this is what I need” he cries beaming down at the neat little line of cups each dotted with their tea bag. “Liam! Take note” he demands watching as Niall takes a jar of sugar out from Harry’s cupboard and heaps a tea spoon into the end cup.

A grimace falls over his face and he turns to scowl at Liam rolling his eyes.

“Why do you insist on ruining the delicate taste of tea with this filth?” He asks pointing at to the sugar jar accusingly.

Liam sighs folding his arms and gives a Louis a regarding look.

“You know I can’t drink it without sugar” he tells him in a tone that suggests he’s said this a thousand times over.

Harry flops back against the sofa with a sigh and glances up at the ceiling peevishly. Today’s going to be a long day he thinks sourly. Someone give him the strength to _not_ kill these people.

“Anyway, how have things been?” Louis asks while taking a small sip of his freshly made tea. “We were worried when we didn’t hear from you for so long, and let’s be honest last night is a bit of blur” he adds.

“Hmm, yeah I’m good. Been a little busy to be honest. Harry’s had a lot on, and I’m his ‘arm candy’ so I’m obligated to go too” Niall says casually handing Liam his tea too before glancing to Harry and pointing to his own mug gesturing if he wants one as well, to which Harry shakes his head.

“Is he treating you well?” Louis asks discreetly, but completely forgets to tone his voice down so Harry ends up hearing it as well.

Although he reckons that Louis had said it loudly on purpose so he would still hear. The way he tilts his head slightly and glances to him quickly with a smirk doesn’t help either. Harry sends him a dark look in return and narrows his eyes.

Niall laughs slightly and he must have seen the exchange as it sounds a little awkward and unlike his normal bubbly laugh – Harry doesn’t like it.

“Yeah I guess so, can’t complain I suppose” he says taking a seat and making room for Zayn to slide in next to him.

“Good, good” Louis chirps flopping down on the sofa opposite Niall and Harry and reaching up to tug Liam down next him. “I saw a couple of the papers with your raunchy kiss and a detailed gossip”

“Yeah what was all that about? A PA stunt?” Liam asks out of nowhere smiling slightly at Niall’s sudden flush.

“Urm, well…” Niall starts to say, his eyes drifting towards Harry who’d lost interest in the conversation.

Of course Louis takes note of Niall’s reliant gaze resting on Harry and starts to put the numbers together. Of course he ends up with the wrong answer and abruptly stands up with a poised posture, looking like he’s ready to rip Harry’s throat out.

“He had better of not taken advantage of you!” He shouts glaring angrily.

“ _He_ is sitting right here and can hear every word coming out of that accusing mouth of yours” Harry murmurs through gritted teeth reminding himself that drop kicking Louis so his head goes through the glass coffee table is most likely some sort of illegal.

“Well _he_ had better be able to hear me. Cause _he_ is going to need to be able to hear the warning I might give before I knock your head clean off your shoulders!” Louis rages his body now turned to Harry and fists clenched.

“Louis, come on sit down. I’m sure Harry didn’t take advantage of Niall. Right Nialler?” Liam says soothingly gently taking Louis wrist in hand and pulling him back down to the sofa.

“Well of course he didn’t!” Niall says quickly sighing when Louis raises an eyebrow questioningly in his direction.

At this point it’s clear to Harry that Louis is looking for any excuse to tear into him. He’s just glad that Niall’s not feeding him any ammunition. All the same wouldn’t hold back if Louis did go to attack him.

There again he’s not quite sure he could Liam as well if the other boy decided to take revenge for Louis.

Yeah, probably a good idea to not piss Liam off…

“So anyway!” Niall says out of nowhere, bright smile back in place. “What have you guys been up to?”

“Not much really. Louis and I went on a surfing holiday though for the weekend. Was brilliant weather and we caught a few good waves” Liam says sharing a wide smile with the chestnut haired boy next to him. “Zayn joined us for the last couple of days so as he could take some photos for his art assignment. We were going to call and see if you could come down, but obviously you’ve been busy and we didn’t want to bug you” Liam explains offering an apologetic look.

“Nah, don’t worry about it!” Niall’s quick to say, waving a hand last his face dismissively. “Can’t be helped, I’m just glad you had a good time” 

“Damn right we did” Louis says fist pumping the air. “Liam got hit on by this group of guys though. It was piss funny when he had to explain he was dating me” he sniggers watching Liam flush red in embarrassment.

“Yeah well you were no help! You just stood there laughing yourself stupid in the background watching me suffer!”

Harry watches the exchange with interest, eyes flicking between the two boys as they argue back and forth comically. He faintly winders whether Niall and him look the same to other people. Do they genuinely look like a couple even when they’re not posing for the camera? Do they act like a couple when out if the public eye? Do they fight like a couple?

Slowly he zones out of the conversation lost within his own thoughts of when and how he ended up thinking about this fake relationship with Niall. He wonders what they would be like if they really were dating.

Would they be kinder to each other? Would they go for romantic walks and trips out exploring?

He can imagine Niall wouldn’t be total the sappy kind and want to go overboard. But Harry likes the idea of looking after Niall and making sure he’s comfortable. But there again he’s never been in a proper relationship before. He has no idea how they even work! The only kind he’s ever experienced is the purely psychical sort, one night stands and such. He’s never _romantically_ cared for someone before.

They thought frustrates him as he sits there listening to how Zayn’s getting on with his art major, something he doesn’t particularly care for right now. All he wants to do is pin Niall against the sofa and have steamy passionate sex while he tries to doubt no awkwardly sort out his feelings and relationship status with Niall.

…Or they could just go for the sex.

No, he tells himself. He _really_ needs to pull himself together and put an end to this confusion. While just getting together with Niall and having hot sweaty sex was very appealing for reasons unknown, he really couldn’t keep having these mental breakdowns. It was seriously beginning to affect him in ways he didn’t want to deal with.

There was also the fact that he at some point Niall or someone else was going to start questioning his frequent glances in Niall’s direction.

He also couldn’t help thinking about the fact that this fake relationship between the two of them was going to come to an end at some point. He couldn’t carry on fake dating Niall forever after all, and the blonde was no doubt going to want to leave when it did end.

He really didn’t want that to happen. Niall had become part of his daily life and it was something he didn’t want to change any time soon.

“-arry? Harry!”

His eyes flick over to where Niall’s stood, hand on hip frowning at him questioningly.

“…What?” He asks trying to play it off casually.

“Seriously?” Niall says making an odd gesture with his hand before letting it drop back down to his side.

The curly boy glances about noticing that Louis, Liam, and Zayn are no longer present. Their chairs are empty and the atmosphere he realises is suddenly lacking the accusing air that it had held when they had been there before.

“Have they left?” he asks Niall who raises an eyebrow at him in what he assumes is annoyance.

“So you’ve finally noticed?” he says and Harry has in idea whether that questions meant to be rhetorical or not.

“When did they leave?” he instead tries, hoping that Niall won’t blow up on him.

“Well I don’t know, maybe when they said goodbye?”

Seems Harry not so lucky. He’s gives a heavy sigh, this wasn’t the conversation he was looking to have with Niall right now. Just moments before he was thinking about his future with Niall and now Niall’s ripping his head off because he didn’t notice that his wayward friends had escaped.

“Okay, okay. I’m sorry. I should have been paying attention, but I wasn’t. Forgive me?”

It’s not the most sympathetic apology he’s ever given, but he’s hoping it will have some sort of positive effect on the blonde.

“You’re unbelievable, you know that right?”

Harry grins in response showing off his teeth in an over the top manner.

“Yeah but you love me right?” he asks pushing off the sofa, sounding every bit the cocky pop star.

Niall follows his movements, eyes trained in him suspiciously as he folds his arms across his chest.

“Not really…” He replies tacking a step back when Harry approaches him.

But the curly haired boy continues advancing on him with a blank look. Now that he’s alone with Niall he can finally sort this out. He continues stepping forward towards Niall even as the other boy takes a couple of tentative steps back heading into the kitchen area.

“What the hell are you doing?” Niall asks as his hips meet the edge of the kitchen counter, his hands now gripping the sides.

In all honestly Harry doesn’t have a clue what he’s doing himself. This has seemed all the more well thought out when he had been thinking about it earlier. But now he’s got Niall trapped within his sight the logical part of his brain seems to have abandoned him.

Not wanting to look like an idiot he makes a move ducking his head toward and meeting Niall’s lips with his own. It’s a spontaneous move, and he hadn’t really given much thought as to where it might lead. But it makes him look less of an idiot simply standing there staring at the blonde.

Of course Niall lets out this little shocked noise and struggles for moment, most likely out of surprise from the sudden movement, Harry doesn’t blame him since it’s not like he had given him any warning – not that he had even thought about doing so. But after a few seconds he goes with it, much to Harry’s delight.

Niall’s a good kisser though, even when sober it seems. Before it had been a little sloppy and there had maybe been a little too much spit involved, but Harry guessed he could blame that on them both being drunk and not having much coordination.

This kiss however was probably one of the best he’d experienced so far.

Niall’s lips were soft, but a little dry and definitely not smothered in greasy lip products such as lip balm or lipstick. It was a nice change and Harry didn’t miss the feeling of having oily makeup smeared across his face from whatever the girl he was normally be kissing was wearing. Instead it was just warm wet lips and a just a little bit of tongue, which Niall had surprisingly thrown into the mix. It was good to know that he was still just as confident about making a move when he was sober.

He slides his hand up Niall’s legs and lets them come up to rest on his hips lifting him up onto the counter properly so he can stand between his legs.

It also means he won’t have to lean down now to compensate for Niall’s height. Not that he minds the height difference, if anything it gives him a somewhat advantage in his eyes. Niall seems to like this position better though and brings his arms around his shoulders keeping them close.

He looks like he’s about to say something, most likely ask him what the hell he thinks he’s doing.

So Harry surges on, slipping a sneaky hand up beneath Niall’s loose shirt dragging his fingers across the pale skin there, leaving a trail of goose bumps in his wake and smirking when he feels Niall shiver beneath his fingers.

He breaks his lips away from Niall and turns his savvy smirk on his watching as the blonde tries to catch his breath.

“You like that?” He asks teasingly letting out a low chuckle that clearly has an effect on Niall he guesses from the way he tenses a little and looks away.

He decides he doesn’t need an answer, not a verbal one anyway, especially when he could he drawing those sounds that he has a particular soft spot for – or hard spot.

He wonders whether he can draw _those_ sounds out thought, the ones Niall had made before when they had last been in a position similar to this.

It’s a challenge, and Harry likes a challenge.

His now wet lips hover over the skin at Niall’s collar blowing a stream of cold air over the patch of skin, cooling it and raising little pimples across the pale expanse of the blonde’s neck. The same lips descend a second later, tongue rolling over the cooled skin and heating it once more. He tries a few different techniques drawing swirling patterns across Niall’s skin before swiping across a certain point that draws a throaty moan from his captive. He’s pauses briefly lifting his head to glance at Niall quickly catching the blonde’s half lidded eyes before resuming back to the same spot of skin nipping it lightly.

He ends up with the same reaction from Niall, a breathy moan and twitch of his hips – the exact reaction his was hoping for. Switching things up a bit his nurses the patch of skin better with a few kitten licks rubbing over the slightly reddened area. This action seems to appeal to Niall too and the blondes hand weaves into Harry hair tugging at the curls in a way that drives Harry mad.

The cheeky lad stop his ministrations at Niall neck and instead makes his way back up to his lips via a trail of kisses up the pale expanse of his neck and across his jaw line leaving little wet marks in his wake.

By this point Niall’s more than a little hot under the collar, he’s giving off little groans every now and then and when Harry’s hand sneaks back to his legs, fingers teasing his inner thigh, he gasps sharply giving Harry the perfect change to re-invade his mouth.

The blonde doesn’t complain though, he even encourages Harry by offering up his tongue twisting it into the curly haired boys.

Naturally Harry’s not one to be outdone and pushes his palm up against Niall’s hardened crotch, giving it a few experimental grinds. The crude moan he gets in return is more than enough to encourage him to continue and he’s quick to tug at the zip on Niall’s jeans loosening the button and yanking at them.

Of course Niall sitting on the counter doesn’t help as he tries to pull them from under him. So he pulls back from the blonde staring in at him though his lashes.

“Could you?” He says motioning to his jeans which are half hanging off the blonde’s hips giving Harry a sight he wants to imprint permanently to his mind.

Niall gives him a tipsy nod in return and scoots off the edge of the counter landing firmly on the floor. A second later and he’s dropping his jeans and pants to the floor lacking any sense of self consciousness.

Harry drinks up the sight, smooth pale skin, completely unblemished and ready for Harry to mark up as he pleases. He gulps a little, taking a step forward and feeling a coil of heat slowly beginning to form in his stomach.

“Back up on the counter” Harry tells him, tone low and lusty.

Niall raises an eyebrow but does as he’s told and hops back onto the counter giving Harry a sultry smirk, rolling his head to the side.

Harry moves forward and place his hands on Niall’s knees.

“Careful, got a reoccurring knee injury” Niall murmurs watching Harry carefully as he rubs circles into his knees.

“Dully noted” Harry replies slowly dropping to his knees, wondering whether or not he should really do this.

He’d done a few kinky things with girls before when he’d managed to find someone who was willing to go all the way with him. At times it wasn’t hard, groupies were easy people to find when you know the right people - they can be easily silenced too.

But Niall’s a guy, and this is a department he’d never dabbled in before. All the same he’s not about to back out right now, not when he’s got Niall exactly where he wants him, legs spread and lacking that normal defiant attitude.

Niall’s about to say something, ask Harry if he’s okay or make a sarcastic comment. But just as he goes to open his mouth and voice his somewhat concern he feels a heat engulf him. It’s sudden, without warning and very warm. A silky sort of wetness that slides over him perfectly, leaving him he white knuckled as he grips the side of the counter.

He lets out a gasp and immediately slams a hand to his mouth to smother the embarrassing noise.

He can tell Harry’s inexperienced, he’s a little sloppy and there’s a more teeth involved than he’d like. After all he’s used to Sean doing this sort of favour for him, and Sean and he know exactly how the other likes it.

But Harry’s new to this and so he can’t blame him for not really knowing. Instead he places a hand into his hair and guides him slightly trying to not let Harry catch on. No doubt Harry the type whose ego bruises easily.

There’s no denying that Harry can do amazing things with his tongue though and he can feel the wet organ slide easily under his shaft making him bite his bottom lip while trying to hold himself together.

“You’re pretty good for a beginner” he says in a shaky tone watching as Harry flicks his eyes to glance at him before giving a particularly hard suck.

Niall sucks in a breath and wonders whether Harry’s doing this on purpose, whether he’s trying to make him cum as quickly as he can. But there’s no way Niall’s going to give in so easily. He’ll do his damned best to make this cocky pop star work for it.

“You sure you haven’t been picking boys up in the clubs” he tries to joke watching as Harry’s eyes go dark, and damn if that isn’t one off the sexiest look he’s ever seen. “I’ll take that as a no” he breathes.

It’s not that Harry minds Niall talking, in fact he’s pretty sure he could get off on Niall dirty talking him. But he’s trying his damn best right now to make Niall cum, and so far he’s lasting pretty well.

He’s got near enough Niall’s whole member in his mouth alternating between bobbing his head on Niall length and giving it a thorough cleaning with his tongue. Niall’s making all kinds of sinful noises above him, and he’s hard as a rock in his mouth, but there’s no sign of any pre-cum so at this point Harry’s damn sure that the blondes either got an insane amount of stamina or Harry’s blowjob just isn’t up to scratch.

He’s not about admit to ask though, he’s got his sexual pride to consider. So that just means he’s going to have to try harder.

He’s takes a breath through his nose and twirls his tongue over the head if Niall’s cock, swiping repeatedly over the slit and poking it with the point of his tongue. He gives another full lick from the base to the tip again before taking him whole letting the top of Niall’s cock hit the back of his mouth.

From above him the hand that had been gripping his hair clenches hard and Niall lets a sharp gasp followed by a very pleased sounding moan his body shivering.

A wave if satisfaction pours into him as he feels the tell-tale signs of pre-cum beginning to form. He laps it up, taking all that Niall can give him, happy enough to listen to the sounds of pleasure Niall is emitting.

“Harry! Harry, I’m going t-”

Harry just hums contently not letting Niall pull out. The vibrations must seal the deal because seconds later he’s got a mouthful of warm sticky fluid in his mouth. It takes him by surprise a little, despite Niall’s desperate warning only moments before. Never the less he’s insanely pleased with himself and from the looks of Niall, heavy breathing and flushed on the counter, he’s pleased too.

He chuckles slightly standing up and placing a sticky kiss to Niall’s cheek. The boy doesn’t appreciate the sentiment and frowns at him. Harry doesn’t care though, he’s still hard himself and keen to have the favour returned in some way.

He’s still surprised by his own confidence if he’s honest. For saying he’d never given a blowjob before he thinks he did pretty well – even though all he’d done was think about what he liked.

“Well I got to say I’m fairly impressed” Niall says catching his breath back, still a little flushed cheeked in a way that makes Harry smile and press another kiss to those rosy red cheeks.

“You should be” he adds smirk playing on his lips. “Never done it before”

“Not sure I can believe that one” Niall tells him hoping off the counter to pull his boxers and jeans back up again.

“Well I’ve never been involved with a boy before, so I’m fairly sure you’re the first” Harry says in a way that makes him sound even prouder of the feat.

“Mmm” Niall hums strolling over the cupboard and reaching up on his toes taking down a packet of biscuits, much to Harry’s amazement.

“What are you doing?” the curly haired boy asks crossing his arms frowning at the blonde tearing open the packet of bourbons.

To utter surprise Niall simply raises the biscuits up to him.

“Imma eafing biscfits” he explains around a mouthful.

Harry takes a step back slightly watching as Niall gulps the first couple of biscuits down.

“Bit hungry after that grade A blowjob” Niall adds with a pleased smile and wink.

“That’s great and all Niall. But I’m still fairly hard myself and you’re stood pilfering through my biscuit supply” Harry tells him thoroughly unimpressed.

Niall looks over to him blinking before he lets his eyes drop down to Harrys crotch area, he then walks back over, bourbons in hand. Without warning Harry finds himself with a mouthful of biscuit and Niall’s no longer in front of him.

“Not my fault you suddenly decided to get frisky!” he hears Niall shout from halfway up the stairs.

The curly haired boy can only blink stupidly at Niall’s retreating form as he stands in the middle of the room crumbling biscuit falling from his mouth.

He realises that blowjob aside, he’s no further forward than he had been this morning.

 

* * *

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So let me know what you thought of that attempt! :) Writing smutty stuff is becoming less daunting surprisingly enough.. And WOW that was not a comment I ever thought would come from me.. Does anyone else get really worried when they post smut. I mean fluffy things is normally my thing, I mean that's what I generally post... But smuts like "OMG DON'T FUCK THIS UP GIRL!"


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